Toki's Satu
by The Sacred Bovine
Summary: Shin Toki is not the average 14yearold girl. For one, she has to climb the counter to reach the sink, her drunken father can read her thoughts, and she's just discovered an injured yoko in a mud bank from her dreams! What is a timid girl to do?
1. The Dream

**Toki's Satu **

Chapter 1: The Dream

Author's Note: This is my very first fan-fiction! Huzzah! I actually started it a year ago, going in a very different direction, then just stopped. I don't know why, 'cause it's really awesome, but lately it's been burning a rather large and worrisome hole in my head, so I came back to it and did some major revising. I think it's a lot better now, but a little confusing at first.

So you all will just have to act like little Jedi's and I am the Jedi Master—constantly maddening you by giving information drip-by-drip on a need-to-know basis. Or you could just pretend to be a super-sleuth and try to figure out everything before I flat out tell you, which may take a while.

_Sentences in italics are thoughts_. _Sentences in underlined italics are telepathic messages._

**All reviews will be taken into serious consideration and contemplated upon vigorously until their true meanings conceived!**

Well, not really. But I will reply to them all!

* * *

It's always the same:

A dark and stormy night, a girl, eyes wide with panic. She's sprinting down a street that I know well, but have never seen. She's running away from something, towards something else. She careens all over the road, unable to run straight. Rain pelts her back, strikes her eyes, it's freezing. Her hair whips her face in wet cords. Her heart races, thrashing like a frightened bird in her rib cage. Her clothes hang off her body and slap at her legs as she urges them faster. She's been running forever. Her muscles burn and her lungs scream for air, but she ignores them.

_I must go on. I must get there before… before… _what?

She can't think, can't concentrate. She falters. It's too dark; she's lost her way. She looks around desperately, but sees nothing. She chokes on the raindrops as they slide down her throat.

_No, no! It can't end here! Please! I can find my way!_

Lightning flashes, momentarily lighting my path. I see it! The way I need to go!

I dart around a curve in the road. The asphalt is rough and tears at my bare feet. My breath is coming in choking rasps. Thunder roars after me.

The Girl is here within me. She wants me to stop. She fights me, but my will to get there is stronger. My face wrinkles in pain as she screeches and I feel my eardrums pop.

_It can't be true,_ she wails, _there's no way!_

The asphalt gives way to gravel. The rocks stab into my soles and are pressed in further with every step I take, but I've never gotten this far. I must go on.

I race down this new road until I see a house. It's only two stories with peaked roof, a handful of windows and a stone fence. Lightning blazes above it's peak, dangerously close. I catch glimpses of a gold mailbox and an elaborate garden through the hammering rain and howling wind.

I've never seen it before, but one word comes to mind…

_Home._

Time seems to slow as I gaze at this astonishing place. My bleeding feet pause on the slick grass. I wish I could have stared forever, but time started again.

The lightning flickers and goes out. Thunder bellows right above me. I jump out of my stupor, trip, and fall in a mud puddle. I flail, then right myself and spit out a bit of sludge. As I clamber to my feet, the thunder snarls like an enraged lion. I give Home one last longing look. I want so much to go in, be held and loved, be safe.

_Yes,_ prods the Girl, _Go on, be sheltered. Go, Pekopeko-chan, go and hide away. This is no place for you._

The storm grows a little quieter as I watch. The rain seems to caress my soaked and weary body instead of battering it. The wind blows gently and all those lovely plants look like they're pointing at what could be my home. No, what _should_ be my home. Lightning streaks in jagged forks across the sky, but the thunder only mutters soothingly. My panicked heart calms to a more balanced rhythm. The rain slows to the occasional drip. The wind is almost gone.

_Yes, Pekopeko-chan, that is what you truly crave. Why should it not be yours?_

My gaze lingers on that home I've never had. My heart yearns so hard it aches, but something else is calling me. Something stronger than me, stronger than my greatest want, it's even stronger than the Girl. It doesn't push like the Girl does, or tug at my heart like my desires, but it calls to me so clearly that I know it is true.

My feet begin to move again, but I don't enter. A silent sob escapes my lips as I dash past my Never-home and down a steep hill, escaping towards the woods around back. My tears mix with the rain.

The storm goes wild again, sending my heart back to it's frenzied tempo. I don't have time to cry. Rain lashes my back and wind shoves hair into my eyes. I stub my toes on an up turned root and fall. My momentum carries me in graceless somersaults in which I seem to hit every rock on the slope. I stop at the bottom of the hill, only to stagger up and race into the woods.

The leaves and the trees protect me from the brunt of the rain and wind, but they blot out the lightning and do nothing to shield me from the rampant thunder. Older leaves cover the ground, slippery from the rain. I lurch, skidding on them but keeping my balance for once in my life. I run on. The leaves are slimy underfoot, and I feel something go "CRUNCH! _Squisssh_," as I tumble into the mud yet again.

I spit out pieces of leaves and more grime, coughing to clear my mouth. I can't help it; I look behind me to see what I stepped on. Lightning flashes, revealing the crushed shell and innards of a snail on my already stone-studded foot.

I want to retch, but I must go on. The Girl will overcome me if I do not -- and I cannot miss… what? I strive to regain my footing yet again, when I hear water. Not like the rain that hammers on the leaves, more like white-water rapids. A river. This is where I must go.

The thunder erupts, obliterating the sound. But my hearing is better than most, I heard where it was. I make for the river at full tilt. All I can do is pray to whoever's listening that I won't lose my footing again.

_No!_ Screeches the Girl, _You can't! It could bring you nothing but pain!_

The lightning sears across the sky, helping me once more to find my way. But then there is a loud cracking sound as the tree it struck bursts into flames. I have about a half second to wonder how something can catch on fire while it's raining this hard before I realize that a burning branch is going to smash me if I don't get my butt in gear and move.

My mouth opens in a silent scream as I dive into a clump of bushes. They too catch fire as the tree limb crashes to the ground in a shower of sparks. I scramble out of them and hope I'm running in the right direction.

I can't go on much further like this. My brain is suffering from stress-overkill. My heart is ready to explode. I've lost the feeling in my legs and feet from the icy rain, but my lungs are burning more than I ever thought possible. It's only a matter of time before I collapse.

_Come, quickly now! You are almost there._

This new voice startles me, but instead of faltering, I run steadier. I come upon an ancient oak tree, like the ones you in pictures. I was amazed. It was at least twenty feet in diameter!

But I can't stop here. I'm so close to the river, so close to… what?

I rush around the tree at maximum speed, straight into… nothing.

I feel nothing but air touching my feet. I don't want to fall on my face again, that would hurt. So I lean back. I slide right down a muddy bank, splashing down into what's more of a swollen creek than a river. The back of my head whacks on what feels like a very hard root.

I sit in water that's up to my neck, clinging to a root so I won't get swept downstream. I reach into my hairline to feel my head. My fingers come back sticky and wet. Blood. Lighting flashes and I see blood from my feet in the water. I know I'm going to pass out or die, whichever comes first.

So I'm bleeding, drenched, covered in muck, and my heart should be able to qualify for the Olympic Mile-Run by now. I'm so pumped up on adrenaline that I can't feel the cold or my pain. I try to stand but my legs give out. All I can do is cling to the root.

_This is where it's supposed to be!_ I think franticly, _I just know it! Where is it!_

I look wildly to the opposite bank. Part of it fades, giving way to a glowing white light.

I'm afraid of it, more afraid than I've been this whole night. I don't know for the life of me what it is.

The light fans out into a waving circle.

Something starts to appear…

"**TOKI! GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED AND COME MAKE BREAKFAST!"**

My eyes snap open. My heart still hammers in my chest. I'm covered in goose bumps; I can still feel the icy rain. I can't help feeling frustrated. For the first time in weeks my dream changes—even if it's only a continuation—and I'm _still_ not able to see the end!

I sit up in the grimy cot _He_ calls my bed. My PJ's hang limply from my form, soaked in sweat. I push off the one thin sheet as I swing my feet to the floor. _He_ gets angry if I dawdle too long.

"**NOW, TOKI!"**

_O, reality, how I loathe thee so._

Pushing aside thoughts of my dream, I only stub my toes on three books before squeezing out my bedroom door, (it's more of a closet, really) skirting empty beer cans and bottles in the hall and stumbling into the kitchen. Our apartment is a mess. It's always this way after weekends. I'll have to swipe more trash bags from the school.

I slink past _Him, _whom is clutching to our couch like gravity has just reversed, or trying to strangle it. The poor thing's already in sorry-shape—the couch, I mean. It's all but disintegrating. _He_ on the other hand, is far beyond "sorry shape."

"Oh, Kami," He groans as I make my way to the refrigerator, questing for anything edible.

_It's alive…_I think to myself, _so much for getting my hopes up. _Not that I wish any harm on the guy or anything. I take a deep breath, hold it, and open the door.

_Danger Alert! Danger Alert! Entering contaminated area!_

The refrigerator truly is foul. I forgot to clean it out for a week or two. In a past life—a far and distant past life—I'm sure all this stuff was originally intended for human consumption. Now, uh… I'd rather not know what it was.

_Oh! Something recognizable! Is it breakfast quality?_ I raise my eyebrows at some slightly fuzzy grapes.

_Nah,_ He _never eats fruit, _but I take them out anyway.

"Honey, get me some Advil. I've got another headache."

"_Hangover" would be the correct term…_I think to myself.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

I twist around. _He_ is sitting up on the couch, eyes burning with a hate I've never understood. I cringe, anticipating him to go into a blind rage—but he only sinks back onto the couch.

"Ohhhhh, so dizzy…. Head splitting…. Stop the noise…."

I watch him a moment more, making sure he's not just waiting to catch me off-guard, before turning back to the refrigerator.

Sometimes _He_ does that. It's like he can hear my thoughts. Then again, most times he's either drunk or recovering from hangovers and I'm pretty sure I'm insane. So it's really nothing to worry about too much.

_He _is my father. It makes me cringe to call him that. I wish he were just my evil stepfather, like in fairy-tales. Then I could hope that maybe, just _maybe_, my real family might come to save me some day. But no—he's blood related. It was Mom and Stepmother that walked out the door and left me behind. Not that I really blame them. After all, who wants a squealing, clinging toddler that you don't even know? Or how about the version after her, a silent-to-the-grave fourth-grader? Moreover, who wants to be with a guy like _Him_?

My quest leads me deeper into the bowels of the 'fridge. Most of the shelves are taken up by beer, but we do have some food in here—well, then again, it depends on your definition of "food." There are leftover veggie burgers from last week, (they were hamburgers to begin with) a gallon of curdled milk, our supply of hotdogs seems to be alive, a few dozen rancid eggs, there's that pile of sludge that resembles Mt Fuji in the vegetable drawer, and a box of pizza. Fortunately, the pizza doesn't look too bad (it always green like that, right?) so I pop it in the microwave for a minute while I let out my breath and scurry to the bathroom.

(My eyes flick to the closet, my bedroom. The dream. I'd never been in control of that dream. I've read about people who can lucid dream. Is that what I'm doing?)

The floor is slick with mouthwash and reeks of Listerine. It always smells like that. If _He's _drunk when he tries to use it, he tends to spill it all over the floor—but he rarely goes through the hassle. Which is probably why I wasn't watching, slipped, fell on my butt, slid across the floor and into the wall. As it just so happens, the medicine cabinet had been left slightly ajar. However, because of the vibrations created by my sudden stop, the door swung open and all those medications came wobbling _very_ close to the edge of their shelves.

_No! Stay! _The medicines teeter cheekily towards me._ Staaaaaaaaay, no, stay! Good bottles! _

The bottles stayed. Another crisis averted! I sigh and let my head drop back—right… against… the wall.

**Thump.**

I freeze, knowing what I did, but just hoping for the best. I look up, smiling sheepishly at them, before they all come tumbling down.

Our medicine cabinet is actually quite impressive with over fifty pill-bottles, vitamins, Band-Aids, gauze rolls, alcohol wipes and other various medical treatments. Most of them are over-the-counter, but a select few painkillers are from the man on the corner. (_He_ comes home pretty messed up after a drunken brawl down on the streets.)

I'm small—and easily buried by the avalanche of medications. A roll of gauze gets stuck in my mouth. I splutter, but the darn thing's stuck! After worming my head above of the heap, I spit it out. It bounces down Med's Mountain as I gaze forlornly at the task that will await me after school.

_Great. Now how am I going to find that Advil?_

I lean my head back, letting it thump against the wall. Why not? Everything up there has gone skydiving.

I can't believe it. The microwave beeps. I'm just staring at the empty cabinet, pondering about that Advil. I'm about to think the magic word—when I hear something. It's like the jangling of coins in a purse but with out the _chink _sound. Something white rolls to the edge of the cabinet, the letters A-D-V-I-L scroll across it as it rolls off the shelf, falls. Stupid me tries to read it as it falls and gets whacked right between the eyes.

_Found it_, I think, rubbing my nose.

I scurry back into the kitchen, place a few slices of pizza on a plate along with the last two Advil. I have to climb up on the counter to reach the cups and glasses. I take one down, hop off, cross to the other side of the kitchen, climb up on that counter and fill a glass of water. Once it's full I clutch it to my chest and jump down. The cold water spills all over my front. I shake as I get a major sense of de ja vu from my dream.

Shivering, I climb back up and refill the glass. This time I set it down, picking it back up once I'm on the floor. I take the glass and plate into the living room and place them on the coffee table in front of _Him_. I also set the empty Advil bottle down next to it. He knows what that means.

"Thanks, honey." _He_ ignores the water I struggled for and takes the pills with a gulp of booze. He's biting into the first greasy slice of piazza when he notices the bottle. "What! Empty, again?"

I bob my head quickly as I dart back to the kitchen for my breakfast. I toss the grapes on a plate and try to scrape off most the fuzz. I eat at the bar that divides our kitchen and living room. The grapes taste putrid, but hey, it's nourishment, right?

I choke down the last of them while I dash back into my closet to get dressed. I trip on a sake bottle and smash my face into my door, which pops open—allowing me to stub a toe on my school bag and do a face-plant on the hard-back I was reading last night.

_Why me?_

I'm always an accident-prone klutz. I guess I'm just glad that I'm not tall. Otherwise I'd probably run into overhanging objects, doorframes and ceilings. (Well, I still run into doorframes, but not the top at least.)

I tug off my wet PJ's, leaving them on the floor in a soggy heap. I tunnel between books under the cot, searching for my school uniform.

We have to wear uniforms at school. Most girls don't like them—I do. It keeps the teachers from asking too many questions about why my clothes stink like alcohol or why I keep wearing the same ones. (I only have a few other clothes.) I actually like our uniforms. Sure they aren't the most stylish things, but they look good. The girls' have blue sailor tops with long sleeves and bordering white lines. There's a yellow kerchief that's held in place by a blue cloth in front. We also have to wear blue pleated skirts and knee socks. The boys just wear blue jackets and pants.

I pull on my skirt and one sock. Where'd that other one get? The right one seems to vanish the moment I need it.

_Dumb sock. Where are you? Arrg, I don't have time to play! Olli-Olli-oxen-free! _

That's my magic word. I always find what I'm looking for after I think it.

_Aha! There you are!_

Sure enough, my sock is draped over my door hinge. How it got there I'll never be sure. Things in my room just seem to have a mind of their own.

I pull it on along with my shoes. Scooping up my bag, I dart out of our 6th floor apartment and down to the nearest elevator. The elevator is really slow but I gave up going down the stairs after I nearly broke my arm… twice.

Finally, it's here! I hustle onboard with two other residents. They don't notice me. I tap my foot, much to the displeasure of the woman ("Do you hear that?" "What, dear?" her husband asks. "That _tat-tat-tat_ sound." She's looking quite paranoid. The man glances around. He doesn't see me standing right behind him. "No," he says. "I do. Do you think its rats? Oh it _is_ rats! The place is infested with _rats_!")

I rub my poor, sensitive ears as I flee the elevator and the shrieking woman.

My full name is Shin Toki Kadoguchi. I don't know why the Girl called me Pekopeko-chan. _He_, Mom and Step mom were the only ones to ever call me Toki. I call myself either _Shadow_ or _Stupid_, whichever fits at the current moment. For some reason all my friends call me Satu. Well, they still do, but we're not friends.

They started calling me Satu we were really young. Before _He_ started acting like this. Even before Mom….

….

…I don't want to think about that.

Anyways, I used to have lots of friends. But we started to drift apart. It may have been that I'm 14 and still only 4'10 on tiptoe. (I'm not short! I'm just vertically challenged!) Now most people don't notice me. That could be because I've passed out of their line of vision, or because I always have my nose tucked deep in a book. I don't mind. I like to keep to myself.

I'm panting heavily by the time run through the school gate. I've got three minutes to make it to class. I look up, admiring the building. Sarayashiki Junior High and the library that resides within; I almost wish it was Home.

I sprint through the door towards the stairs. I can be fast if I need to.

I only fall up the stairs five times before running onto the third floor. For sprinting, that's a record! I've even got a minute left to get into my seat. I just might make it! I see my classroom door. Thirty seconds!

_Yes! I'm going to make it! For once in my life I'll be on time! Today's going to be a great day!_

Genuinely smiling for the first time in a long time, I can almost hear victory music playing in my head.

Just as it shuts, I run through the door… oh, wait…. I can't run through doors.

**BANG!**

I see the door falling away….

…. and everything goes dark.

**

* * *

**

Notice any astro marks? All the words they mark are Japanese. You can find their meaning in the glossary!

Glossary

Pekopeko-chan—little fawn

Kami—God

Shin Toki Kadoguchi—Shin is the family name, Toki her personal name and do the Japanese have middle names? Well, that's what Kadoguchi is

(A/N) So? Ye like? Tell me if there's anything I can improve on! (Should it have been shorter or what?) The next chapie will have YuYu characters. Seeya then!


	2. More Running & the Death of Now

Chapter 2: More Running & the Death of Now

I wanted to get further in this chapter, but I liked where it stopped. Plus it already takes up eight pages in size 10 Times New Roman font. ' So I figured, here we stop.

I'm going to a wedding over the weekend, so the next chapter might be a little delayed. **But that's the really good one, so please stick with me!** Bounces up and down a few times

Enjoy!

* * *

_Lightning, running, running fast_

"Shin? Shin!"

_Panic, fear, thunder _

_Home, the Girl, the Voice_

"Satu? Satu, are you alright?"

_Grief, loss, running_

_Pain, EEW, fire_

_Rain, mud, the creek_

_Something appearing, something bright…_

"**SHATUN!"**

The two names combine and muddle in my throbbing mind. What happened? Oh yeah. I tried to knock down the door with my head. That's _definitely_ gonna leave a mark. My skull wants to crack right down the middle. I grimace, putting a hand to it and feel a small, tender bump growing under my skin.

I can hear them calling me. Man, how embarrassing. I knocked myself out like a bird flying into a window. Face crumpled, I keep one hand on the lump and push myself up with the other.

Bad move.

The tile floor heaves and bucks while the walls twist and coil. My arm buckles, dropping me back to the floor. But before my head can hit, someone catches it with gentle hands.

I lug my eyes open to see Keiko, our Class President, cradling my noggin like it were gold. She looks concerned. I can't control my thoughts and they swirl to what I know about her.

_She's reliable, kind and loyal, thoughtful and responsible: everybody's sweetheart. She's one of the rare people who even notices me on a regular basis. She has a weird taste for guys. Rumor had it that she was going out with Urameshi._

I remember. I was there, watching from the newspaper rack.

_A soccer ball bounces into the street, a small child reaching, grabbing it. That boy in green was yelling, diving, and pushing him out of the way. Brakes squeal, but it's too late. His body only creates a dull thud as it collides with the car and rolls over the hood. _

I was at his wake, too, standing quietly in the shadows.

_I pay my respects to his weeping mother. My only prayer for him_: May you come back better than you were before._ I leave the house for the alluring shadows of a corner. I see Keiko, sobbing piteously with a small group of friends. A ruckus goes up to one side. A large man is pushing through the crowd. It's Kuwabara. His gang is draped around his arms and legs, trying to stop him. He's yelling, but tears flow down his face. _

_Urameshi had more friends than he realized._

_Suddenly, I feel him. I know he is near with a clarity that forces my eyes to open a little wider. They flit to the sky, scanning back and forth. Out of the corner of one eye, I think I see him floating next to something pink, but when I look back there's nothing there. Frightened and confused, I leave hastily and avoid looking at the sky for weeks._

I look up at her caring brown eyes. I know she still loves him.

_I'm so sorry._

She must be lonely. Her eyes take on a look of uncertainty before she asks again, "Satu, are you alright?"

By this time I've regained some of my lost composure, at least enough to feel horribly embarrassed. I sit up again. This time the floor doesn't try to fling me off the planet. I nod once. A sharp stab of pain slits through my head, but I stand.

"Of course she's okay," snaps Mr. Iwamoto. "Shin, get into class, you have a tardy-slip. If you don't hurry I'll give you one, too, Keiko."

Great, my first late-slip of the week and it's only first hour. The way things are going I'll be in detention before Wednesday. I sigh miserably while Keiko chirps, "Hai, Sensei!"

I lean over to grab my book bag and the floor sways. I stagger, almost falling into Keiko and coming dangerously close to bumping Mr. Iwamoto. Blushing furiously, I scurry into the classroom through the now open door.

_Oh! Look, Stupid! The door is open! See? You can walk through it when it's open! Now isn't that amazing?_

_Oh, shut it, _I tell myself.

Mr. Iwamoto hands me a signed tardy-slip. I slip it into my History book and scamper to my seat.

The class is staring. They're all dying to know my newest disaster. I feel fifty eyeballs boring holes into my skull, not that I'm going to offer up any chitchat.

"It's okay," the ever-helpful Keiko says as she and Mr. Iwamoto come in, "Satu just ran into the door and knocked herself out."

_O Kami, please take me now._

I drop into my seat and the floor drops with me. Bye-bye stomach.

While I'm trying not to display my breakfast on my desk, the class snickers. I hear "Satu the Smooth" whispered around the room. I can't believe they still call me that after all these years. The boy next to me, Jiro, goads "Satu's an egghead!"

Great, there's the name of the day. Egghead. I touch the swelling goose egg in the middle of my forehead. Feeling like an ant, I sink down in my seat while the floor does acrobatics.

_Yep, it left a mark. I wonder what color it is by now? Red, blue and purple seem like good bets._

I try to cover it with the sparse black bangs that are always hanging in my eyes. My hair feels matted. I tug out some of the tangles, wishing I'd had time to shower last night.

"Everyone, shizuka ni!" says Mr. Iwamoto, "It's time to settle down and get to work. Now, can anyone recite the main ideas of last week's lesson? Keiko?"

Keiko answers perfectly, of course. I get out my latest book and read. It's Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, fresh from America. When I read everything else just fades away…

* * *

I'm just calculating the possibility of 2 bird genes in a human being enough to give them a 13-foot wingspan when there comes a buzzing. It's a brassy, irritable buzzing and it won't go away. I shake my head. Maybe it's my ears ringing. It's still there. Still unwilling to come fully out of my book, I glance up. The buzzing has stopped. (Gasp!) The classroom is empty!

_That was the bell, Stupid! Now you're going to be late again! _

I turn into Shadow, my stealthiest state of mind. Gathering my books, (I'm only caring three leisure ones today) I empty my mind, envisioning the empty classroom. Mr. Iwamoto doesn't even twitch as I slink past him.

On my way out, someone gives the door a push. I don't see it in time (big surprise there, right?) and crash into it again. Man has many words for when this type of thing occurs, most of them would have to be censored. However, there is one word, consisting of two elongated vowels, which I may use without guilt when describing the extreme agony of my pain. And that word is:

_Owwwiiiiii!_

Tears pop into my eyes while my goose egg throbs. If there was a gosling in there, it just broke its neck. This door 'n' me, real head-bangers we are.

Mr. Iwamoto looks up from his papers at the **Thwack**, and the hissing sound of me breathing through my teeth, trying not to burst into tears.

"Shin? What are you doing in here? You're late for you're next class. Here, let me fill you out a tardy-slip."

_He's says that like he cares. Sorry old man, but two more of those and my library privileges are cancelled for the week! Can't let that happen!_

I dart out his room, sprinting down the hall. Geez, it's not enough that I've been running all night but now I have to run all day too! My shoes squeak with each step; their soles are wearing out. I didn't have time to change into my school shoes in my mad dash to get to homeroom. I hope no one notices.

"**Shin Toki! Stop right there!"**

_Just _had _to think it, didn't cha?_

I stumble one my toes, latching onto the window to help slow me down. (I didn't fall! YAY!) I take a moment to admire the view: a clear, sapphire sky shining above a seemingly pristine city. However something very ugly is about to happen.

Something will die.

A short, fat lady in her mid forties comes waddling up to me. Believe it or not, it's the P.E. teacher, Mrs. Ito. She is the murderer. If I can ever make it to second period, I'll have her for third. She's a _really_ unusual individual who **always** seems to be aware of me.

"Now, Miss Shin, though I love to see your enthusiasm for running, I must say that the hall way is not the place for it, not even now after the bell rings. Speaking of which, you're now not only violating the safety rule about no running in the hall, but now you're also late for class. Now you stand right where those bitsy little feet are and I'll write you out a tardy-slip and a misconduct slip. Oh! Goodness me! Those wouldn't be your street shoes, now would they, Miss Shin? That's a direct violation of the school dress code! Now I'll have to write you up a slip for that, too. Honestly, now Miss Shin! Must you make my hand work so hard? Now, let me see…"

… Obviously, our P.E. teacher is rather long-winded and has an undying affection for the word _"Now."_

She fills out three slips, muttering all the while.

"There you go, now!" She hands me the papers and I wince. That word was dead about the third time she used it. "Now (flinch) you're all taken care of and ready to go to your next class, which is starting now. (Cringe) Run along, now! (Flinch) Oh no! You didn't think I meant literally, did you now? (Grimace) Oh, ho ho ho! Now, (wince) off to class with you! Good-bye, now!"

Cringing, I _walk_ quickly down the hall. I hold the funeral services in my head.

_Today we honor the word "Now." Who died tragically from word overuse, commonly know as overkill. He was a fine word until Mrs. Ito got her rambling lips around him, for that was the beginning of the end. We shall burry Now, and try to use him as little as possible. He will be missed as an important adjective in our lives. Now leaves behind his wife, No, and their son, Ow._

I shake my head sadly. Poor word. He didn't even stand a chance.

Stashing the newest demerits into my history book, my walk slows to a creep as I near my next class: Literature.

They've already started, the lights are off and the projection light is on. It displays a sheet on William Shakespeare. They're taking notes.

I still have a chance. If I can slip in, get to my seat and start taking notes without too much noise, I can avoid a tardy-slip from Mr. Hayashi, too. The trick is not to be a klutz.

So in short—I'm doomed.

_I am Shadow. I am Shadow, _I chant to myself.

I _slide_ the door open, _slither_ inside and _slip_ it shut. I _glide_ across the floor. _Skim_ beneath the projection's light and _drift_ into my seat. I did it all so smoothly, so silently that no one even blinked. Well, except for that oaf in the back, but he's just weird.

Feeling proud, I _sneak_ out my paper and pen. I wonder if Shakespeare could be so sneaky?

* * *

Literatures passes uneventfully, thank Kami, so next is lunch.

I dislike lunch with a passion.

First of all, I have to scuttle down the hall, trying not to get stepped on, shoved, squished or trip over my own feet and have all three happen. Then I have to wait in the middle of a long, loud lunch line, worrying if I have enough money to pay or if I'll have to charge again. Some days I don't eat lunch, not because of the expenses, just to escape the noise.

There are doors near the back of the cafeteria, but we aren't allowed outside. We sit at eight long bench-like tables that each run half the length of the room. If I sit at the very end of the table farthest from the doors, nearest to the halls we just came from, I can escape most of the noise and ramming.

I sit there today, trying not to flinch every time a student squeals or shouts on the other side of the room. Trying not to hear them, trying to be invisible, I munch down my raw carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I didn't have enough for dressing.

Snapping a dry carrot on my teeth, I reflect on the Dream. Did I have it again when I passed out? I can't remember.

_Okay, Stupid, so lets think on things you know._

Um, okay. I know I've had that same dream for the past month at least. But this morning was the farthest I ever gotten, and the first time I was able to force a dream to continue. If I did dream it again when I K.O.'d myself, it started right where I was put into first person and normally I dream in third.

So, yes, the Girl is I. But I don't know how you could get separated from yourself like that. I don't feel like the Girl is here inside me. (Gasp!) I'm not going schizophrenic, am I? Oh no! First you dream like you are, then you talk to yourself! Next thing you know, you're talking to objects and rocking back and forth in the corner of a round, white room! I knew I was going crazy!

_Maa maa, you already talk to yourself, Stupid. And I plainly recall you telling those bottles to STAY. _

_Yeah, so? That doesn't count! I didn't say it out loud!_

_Just because they didn't stay doesn't mean it doesn't count! And like you could! Did you forget that you're—_

_That's a triple negative! Improper grammar! Ha! Who's the stupid one now?_

I couldn't let myself finish that thought. It not true…but it still reminds me of Mom. It's best I forget her.

**BRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIII! **Says Mr. Bell.

I jump so hard that my legs hit the underside of the table. I hope no one saw that. Now I'll have bruises on my knees, too.

Now it's off to Phys Ed for physical torture and more funerals for the word 'Now.'

* * *

It's still a perfect day out, with crystal blue skies and a slight wind. There are sixteen girls, one fat lady, and the football team out on the field/track today. The girls make up my third period P.E. class. The football team was busy showing off. The lady, Mrs. Ito, was already beginning her assault.

"Now, since this is my smallest class, we'll now be running both the 400-meter run and the 100-meter dash today."

Everyone groans. I wonder why she says "we" when she means "you." I don't think she _could_ run a hundred meters.

"Now ladies, I see those hunkies over there, working out. You are now watching the very definition of a hunky. (All the girls had their eyes glued to the boys.) They flex those pecks and now all our hearts go a-fluttering! (Mine wasn't.) Now, watch as they run. (Mrs. Ito had them now; even I was enticed to look.) Their hair waves to you in the wind now wave back darlings! (We all wave back.) I know they're cute now, but in twenty years they'll be bald!"

Several of the girls who'd been eyeing the "hunkies" wistfully gasp and draw back in horror. A blonde girl with pigtails even squeaks. Uh-oh, it's our Cheerleader Captain, Saito Hoshi.

_Cue the water works in three, two…one…_

Saito bursts into great, wailing sobs. She's so loud that a few jocks on the field look up. Her friends squeal "Hoshi!" swarming around her as she sinks to the ground, bawling.

"Now, now," comforts Mrs. Ito. By this time she's got the majority of us flinching. "Yes, now I know it's a terrible thought to be thinking now. But after these years of fun and games have passed, you'll go off into the grueling world of society and your once hunky husband will lose all his hair." She pretends to wipe away a tear. Saito doesn't bother; she's too busy howling. Her fan club frets over her mascara, which is pouring down her face. I find it rather hilarious.

"Now, Miss Saito! You straighten up, now! Now it's not like we can't enjoy them now, when they're young and gorgeous! Now even I myself have been sweet on Coach Kimura, now don't you know!" Mrs. Ito finishes her speech with a wink.

This shuts Saito up. She blinks pitifully and sniffs once. Then she picks herself up. She's immediately enfolded in a group hug. Unfortunately, she uses the opportunity to smear off some of her mascara one the other girl's gym uniforms.

Well, at least she doesn't look like a rejected clown anymore.

Finally, Mrs. Ito gets us arranging in running order. I'm last, of course, because I nearly have to run into Mrs. Ito the get her to notice me.

We took a vote (mine didn't get counted) so first is the 400-meter run. I think most of the girls are bakas for deciding to go this way. We'll be too tired to get a good score on the 100-meter dash.

* * *

((Somewhere around 10 minutes later))

_I'm dead. _

_I am not lying here on the grass, panting like a dog. I am in heaven._

_My muscles are not screaming in agony and I have not barfed twice._

_I am as free as a bird as I fly about. Effortlessly swooping—OWCH! Ow…ow. _

Pain awakens me from that fantasy.

"Gomen," says the girl who's just tripped over my aching legs, stepping on one in the process. "Didn't see you there…" She stumbles away to puke in the trashcan.

It was horrifying…absolutely gruesome. If anyone ever tells you fat ladies can't run, don't believe them. I repeat: **Do not believe them! **Fat ladies like Mrs. Ito _can_ run. In fact, they can run very fast—even while yelling into a megaphone.

"**FASTER, LADIES! C'MON NOW! PUMP IT! PUMP IT! WORK THOSE LEGS!"**

She's after the first five for the 100-meter dash. I try not to heave and roll onto my back. I couldn't believe she chased us for three laps on the 400-meter. I guess when she said that none of her students would get more than a 10-minute time she meant it.

"**Numbers six through ten get off your bottoms! Front and center! Now!"**

This is the least I've ever heard her use the word "now." If I don't make it, maybe he will.

I gape at her pursuing 6-10. Imagine a bowl of pudding. Now imagine it jiggling as it bounces up and down on a conveyor belt behind five carrot sticks. Now put gym uniforms on the food and imagine them as people running down the track and you'll have Mrs. Ito chasing a third of our P.E. class.

The football team had fled when she got out the megaphone. I'd wondered why that was. Now I know but wish I didn't.

Something wet hits my nose. I hope it's not what I think it is. I crack open an eye and a raindrop falls in it. That's most certainly not what I thought it was.

_What in the world…? Fifteen minutes ago it was a perfectly clear day out! Now it's about to storm? But I still have to run the 100-meter dash!_

Thunder rumbles in the sky just as Mrs. Ito summons 11-15. The clouds are getting darker. Wasn't there a rule about having students out in impending thunderstorms?

I have a bad feeling about this. And it wasn't just that voice that tells you you're about to get wet. Something bad was going to happen.

All too soon Mrs. Ito calls into her megaphone.

"**Sixteen!"**

I peel myself off the ground and stagger away from the throng of my peers. All of who are in various stages of barfing or moaning until they collapse into lifeless heaps.

As I approach Mrs. Ito, it's almost like there's a fire in her eyes. I've never seen her like this before. Well, I heard that last semester she went berserk during that huge storm, but that was just a rumor.

"Miss Shin! How lucky you are! Getting to run through the storm all by yourself!" A lightning flash is reflected in her eye, followed quickly by thunder. She smiles wide. "Aha! Now here comes the show!"

Rain starts to fall by the bucketful. Our class shrieks. They actually find the energy to get up and dart beneath the stands.

So we have fifteen girls…

In a thunderstorm…

Taking shelter…

Below tall…

Metal…

Bleachers….

_Nice._

Mrs. Ito still has that grin on her face as she follows my gaze.

"Oh don't worry! They'll be fine! You'll see! Now off to the starting line with you!"

_Please don't get hit by lightning,_ is my only thought as I turn my back on them to walk to the starting line.

Thunder bangs just overhead. The girls scream. I keep walking.

I crouch at the starting line, sticking my hind end way up in the air.

"**NOW!"** Shouts Mrs. Ito through megaphone, rain and thunder.

I launch myself. I'm running before hit feet hit the ground. Mrs. Ito is right behind me, yelling through the megaphone, but I can't hear her. Each step is tricky. I have more hole than shoe, so I have to pick up my feet unless I want to trip on one. Somewhere along the line, a pebble falls into my shoe and stabs me with every step. The storm and my running legs give me such a huge case of de ja vu that it makes me dizzy. Or maybe that's just the lack of oxygen talking.

_I'm running in my dreams, I'm running on the track. It's storming in my dreams, it's storming on me now. I had lots of rocks in my feet in my dreams; I have a rock in my foot now. Geez, the only thing that's missing is the—_

I don't pick up my foot high enough and trip. I careen to my left, fall off the tack and land in the ditch beside it. Well, it would have been a ditch if it hadn't been filled with muddy water.

—_face plants…I really could have done without those._

After swallowing two mouthfuls of the muck, I find myself being hauled out by the flabby—but surprisingly strong—arms of Mrs. Ito. She carries me up the three-foot hill and deposits me back on the track. I'm soaked through. When she lets go I slip right through her arms and sink to the ground. Mrs. Ito flops down beside me.

If I weren't so cold I'd be blushing up my own storm.

"Deary me! Miss Shin, are you alright?"

I nod my head meekly. Once again, I am covered in mud. But I think the rain is taking care of that.

"Great thunder above! When you slipped of the track I completely lost sight of you! When I saw that giant mother o' mud puddles down there—oh dear, deary me—I thought I'd lost you! You were all the way under you were!"

I look at her in awe. That was five sentences without even coming close to saying the word 'now,' she must be sick! She's dripping mud and still smiling! (There's even some mud on her teeth.)

"Lightning flash and thunder boom!" Mrs. Ito shouts joyfully. Each made itself known at the same time she said the words. It's almost scary, but then she shines that mud-stained smile on me like I'm the best thing in the world. It'd been so long since some one had shown it to me. I'll remember that beam for the rest of my life.

The grin still stretching her face, Mrs. Ito yells to me over the storm, "Toki, what an adventure! Why didn't you tell me you could be so much fun?" Now there's a different twinkle in her eye to accompany the loving smile. Together they create a façade that is almost unearthly in it's glorious splendor. I can't help but think it's not so much unlike the look mothers give their daughters.

She called me Toki.

Suddenly…

…I start to smile, too.

* * *

A/N: Awww! How cute! I couldn't help adding some fluff to make up for all the torture I've been putting my main character through. So that was for Satu! If anyone wants to look at more Toki's Satu material, they can go to my otaku site, where I post more regular updates and replies to all your reviews. The web address to copy into your browser is:

You'll need to take out all the spaces for it to work. Remember, I'm going to a wedding (Arrg no! I have to wear a flowery dress and read a Bible passage in front of lots of people!) So the next chapter might be late.

Ja ne!

Glossary

Hai- Yes

Sensei- Teacher

Maa-maa- Calm down

Baka- Idiot

Ja ne- Later


	3. Black Out

(A/N) Huzzah! I am returned! Oh, wait you guys didn't know I was gone, did ya? Oops. Well, you see, I tried really hard to get this chapie done before I left. I mean _really_ hard. I was up till 1:30 AM working on it before my dad finally said that I had to get some sleep since we were leaving at 7. So I said okay, went to bed and set my alarm for 4:30 AM. That way I'd get three whole hours of sleep, get up, finish and post this story. (See how much I love you guys? I love you more than I love sleeping in, _that's_ saying something.) At the appointed time, I got up, got dressed, and went straight to the keyboard. I remember looking closely at one of the keys, then being shaken awake by my mother who'd just got home from work. Yeah, it was fun explaining that one. ("I wasn't sleeping, Mom, I was just testing the keyboard for drool resistance! Really!")

Then I had lots of fun on vacation—a road trip along the Eastern Seaboard. (If you wanna know more, just go to my site.) But then, once we got back, I had to delete three pages of "7"s. I also had to scrape dried saliva off some of the keys. Yes, it was very disgusting. I get grossed out ever once in a while I type now, but the show must go on!

You'll start to notice Toki picking up other's thoughts. No, she doesn't know she's doing it, nor does she think much of it. That'll all change soon. (Evil laughter.)

As always:

_Sentences in italics are thoughts_. _Sentences in underlined italics are telepathic messages._

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3: Black Out**

Class: Algebra/Calculus

My Location: Hunched over three pages of growing notes.

Physical Aliments: Hand is ready to seek less demanding human, ears feeling raw and tortured.

Appearance: Soaked, shivering and sulking, but not noticed

What I Shouldn't be Thinking About: How Mr. Akashi's buckteeth make him look like what he is, a rat, and wondering if he has to file them…

Well, in literal terms, Mr. Akashi _is_ human. But he just barely qualifies. He's evil! **Evil, I tell you! **Mrs. Ito gave me a pass for being late for class along with an apology note saying it was her fault I was tardy and he _still_ gave me a tardy-slip! Then he gave me a misconduct slip for dripping all over his floor! **EVIL! **So now I have three tardy-slips and three misconduct-slips! Three slips of any kind and I have a detention and all my privileges are cancelled! So for all you math-wiz out there, guess how many detentions I have?

**He's evil!**

How a school could get so many horrible teachers? Mr. Iwamoto and Mr. Akashi are just plain evil. The Home Economics teacher is a lazy pig. Then there's Mrs. Yuma, so timid that she's been known to faint in the middle of a lesson. Sure, Mrs. Ito is nice, but she's seriously weird and a word-killer. I swear Mr. Takanaka is the only normal one! Which—ironically—makes him abnormal.

So as I sit here, dripping on my notes, thinking my thoughts, Mr. Akashi whines on about numbers and their relation to each other and the school board and how it's not fair and why doesn't anyone ever listen to his brilliant ideas? And, in my own silent revenge, I reply.

_Well, for one, you're evil. Two, your voice sounds like nails on the chalkboard. And three, you never have _any_ ideas, much less good ones._

My stare drifts to the window. The storm has really kicked up. It's well before sunset, but outside it's darker then I've ever seen. Low, fat clouds and hammering rain blot out the city; visibility is down to at least 30 feet. Bursts of lightning strike in jagged white forks against the black haze of the storm. But dim roars of thunder and muted screams of the gusting wind are all that reach us through the thick walls of the school. I almost feel protected….

But that's when it starts.

My ears begin ringing. It starts out as a gentle whirr, and then increases to a hum. At first I think it's the bell, but when I look up, everyone else is just sitting around, scrawling out every shrill word that passes Mr. Akashi's lips.

I shake my head, willing the noise to stop. Instead, it redoubles into a ring that stings the back of my eyes. I try massaging the base of my ears, but it doesn't help. In a way, I knew it wouldn't.

_No, not again! Stop! Please stop!_

I'm already crying inside my head. Physical tears try to push their way forward. It feels like someone is shoving a thousand tiny needles into my eardrum.

Suddenly, I realize that the class has gone quiet. My fingers stop in mid-rub. Mr. Akashi is standing right in front of my desk!

"Well," he sneers, glasses glinting with reflected lightning. "Are you going to join us here on planet Earth, Egghead, or should I send a personal shuttle to retrieve you?"

I resist the urge to reach up and cover my humongous bump. I'd forgotten about that. The class snickers. My heart freezes and I try to shut down all emotion. Now would not be a good time to burst into tears.

The ringing in my ears has reached a higher level. Pain rakes my head as the insistent bother reaches fever pitch.

"The…answer is…Egghead…or…Shin…?"

What? Did he say something? I can't hear past the ringing. The classroom sways. I'm so dizzy.

Slowly, there comes another sound through ringing. A low buzz, a humming like a generator as it creates electricity. I listen closely to it. I think it's coming closer.

"Do you have the answer or not, Shin Toki!" Mr. Akashi screeches.

I don't hear him. My head jerks upward. The buzzing is hurtling closer every second. The thought I'm thinking so strongly is echoed by a masculine voice from the classroom next to ours.

"_Abunai!!"_

I have about two seconds to recognize it as Kuwabara Kazuma before there's a loud "**_ZAP!_**" and all the lights burst. Showers of sparks and glass rain down on us. I shield my head with my arms as I listen to the terrified screams of my class and the sound of glass shattering. When I raise my eyes, I see nothing but black. Not even the emergency lights come on.

A shocked silence follows. Someone whimpers. I think it was Mr. Akashi.

A flash of lightning throws the room into sharp contrast, making everyone jump. A quick sweep of the room reveals my classmates sitting stiffly in their chairs, glass all over everything, and something bulky in the corner nearest to me. Sure enough, the next strike reveals Mr. Akashi huddled up and shaking, pressed as close to the wall as he can get.

Saito Hoshi, ever eager to gain favor with the teachers, picks her way through the glass to reach Mr. Akashi. She hovers in front of him, trembling slightly and looking what she must consider adorable but purposeful.

_Teacher's pet._

"Sensei! Are you all right?" Saito gasps.

"_Noo-ooo!"_ he wails in his rat-like voice. "_Protect meeeeeee!_" He snatches Saito's arm between clammy fingers, pleading with her. He talks faster and faster, his voice breaking and screeching in its urgency.

"I knew she'd find me one day! She wants to fry me! There's nothing I can do! You have to help me! She's coming for me! _She's coming!_"

Saito's looking rather pale. She flails at him, making little squeaks with each feeble blow. Jiro, the boy from first period, snickers and yells, "Who's after you, Mr. Akashi?"

"_Her! _Frankenstein's _Bride_! She throws mutant slug monsters made of rain that stick to your glasses! Lightning shoots out her hair while she crackles like a demon and flies into the air, wielding her wok of doom! She wants to fry me like _rice_ with her lightning fork! You have to _save meeee_!

_Yup, he's dropped off the deep end._

"Sensei, you're nuts!" squeals Saito. "Let go of me! I'm the cheerleader captain! You can't do this to me! I'll call the cops! Let go, freak! Everybody! Don't just stand there like bakas! Get this lunatic off me!"

By this point in time, I'm not sure who's having the greater hysterics: Mr. Akashi, raving about mutant slug monsters—Saito, wailing for someone to peel the "freaking lunatic" off her arm—or the class, for whom this was all a slapstick comedy show.

But I'm listening to the next class over. While Mr. Akashi is babbling about monsters and Frankenstein's Bride, the teacher in that class seems to be having troubles of her own.

"O-okay folk-ks d-d-don't pan-nic!" Poor Mrs. Yuma, she always stutters when she gets nervous. "I-I'm sh-sh-sure i-it's j-just s-s-some sm-m-mall techn-nical d-diff-fic-cult-ty. T-there i-i-is n-no n-need t-t-to—"

She never gets to finish that stammering direction, for a class full of screeching students cuts her off. However, noisy children are something she most certainly does know how to take care of. Too bad she's already so flustered.

"PEOPLE! PEOPLE PLEASE STOP SREAMING!"

The class screams louder.

"EVERY THING IS O.K.! THERE IS NO NEED TO PANIC!" Cries the teacher.

Our class has gone quiet. Everyone is frozen in place. Even Saito and Mr. Akashi are still-as-stone, Mr. Akashi's fingers still clamped about her wrists. We're all listening, waiting to see what they'll do.

A chair scrapes across the floor and one voice rises above the rest.

"Forget this! We're outta here!"

What's that one game? Simon Says? Well, look at it this way; the whole school is playing Simon Says. The teachers are just obstacles—but the kids are Simon.

Suddenly, there a-comes a grating jingle, followed by crunching sounds. Almost like the whole school was getting out of their seats and running down the halls full of broken glass.

"NO! DO NOT EXIT THIS ROOM! THERE IS NO NEED TO—"

"Oi!" Yells Jiro from the door, "Everybody's leaving! Don't know about you guys, but I'm gone!"

Well _duh_, of course no one else wants to be left behind.

They all scramble towards the door. Some kids hop over the desks. Most just knock them over. Books, bags, chairs, me—anything that gets in their way gets knocked down.

I'm caught in the mad dash to the door and trampled five or six times. My face is ground into the tile. My pulse is throbbing in that ever-growing goose egg by the time I manage to find my feet. Now I'm running, too. Not to get out, just to save myself from being run over again.

"No! Come back you have to_ save me!_" howls Mr. Akashi, but we leave him far behind

As we sprint along the hallway, crunching broken glass beneath our feet, others join. They come pouring out the doors and tumbling down the stairs. Everyone is screaming, trying to make as much noise as they can. Some kids bang on lockers as they run. The school is filled with the wild sound of a thousand screaming voices.

Somehow, through all this madness, I'm swept away from the school, out the front gate and, once again, into the rain.

_You know what, Sarayashiki Junior High? I hate you! Ha ha! I am _never_ coming back! _

Whoa, where'd that thought come from?

"Satu!" I hear someone call.

I jump, effectively causing myself to trip, bash my head on someone's back and fall into the mud.

Again.

Fumbling in the mud, I'm really beginning to think that the world has something against my head.

_I swear, _I think to myself, _if I hit my head anymore times today I'll look like a unicorn!_

"Oi, Satu! You gotta watch your feet, girl!" A strong hand lifts me up by the back of my shirt and carries me away from the crowd.

It's Ito Ami, Mrs. Ito's granddaughter (she lives with Mrs. Ito, too.) Star of just about every track and field event our school has to offer but she could care less about games, for her it's all about proving her strength. The key rule with her: You do **not** challenge Ito Ami unless you want to be black and blue for a week.

But most importantly, Ami is my friend.

My only friend, really.

"Ha! So you're still trying to eat dirt, huh? I gotta tell ya, cookies are brown, too, and a hundred million times better!" She reaches around to her pack with one hand and pulls out a folded napkin. Nudging it open with her thumb, it reveals a stack of six double-fudge chocolate-chunk cookies. My mouth starts to water.

"You want some?" She tantalizes, "Obaa-chan made them just this morning! They might still be warm!"

Have you ever had one of those times where you wanted something so much that your mouth started watering, then you see it and your mouth waters so hard that you have to swallow but it fills right back up again? This is definitely one of those times. I think I might be drooling. But one thing has to happen first.

Tearing my eyes away from the cookies, I look meaningfully up at Ami.

"Mmm!" She says, waving the little cookies from heaven under my nose. "Don't they smell _good_?" She tortures me, but doesn't get it.

Ignoring the delicious aroma that wafts into my nose, I try to give her another meaningful look.

"What?"

I hold up my first finger, her eyes zoom to it. I point at her forehead (I would have poked it if it wasn't still a good foot away from me) then to the ground (over which my feet still dangled by about three feet.)

"Oh! Heh heh, gomen-nasi, Satu." She gently deposits me on the sidewalk. On the way down I snatch the cookies from her hand, she doesn't notice. Ami may be an athletic star, but she's a bit of a scatterbrain.

"There ya go! Safe on dr—uh—wet land once again!" She smiles grandly.

I smile slyly.

"_Good_ _Kami,_ Satu! What happened to your head!"

My free hand flies to cover my goose egg, which has could qualify for a hill by now.

_I keep forgetting about that._

I smile and roll my eyes like, _it's nothing really, doesn't hurt at all._ It was, it did.

This time Ami takes the hint and switches her attention to the hand I'm hiding behind my back.

"Just being clumsy again, eh? Oi, short-stuff, whatcha got there?"

I smile wider. She'll figure it out if I give her a few seconds. (Especially since she's still holding the napkin.)

Suddenly, it dawns on her. Smiling Satu, hands behind her back, the empty napkin, cookie crumbs trailing to the ground… that must mean…

_Too late!_

I scamper around her, running full tilt down the street. Ami stands there, stunned. Then she gives chase, hollering, **"Satu! I'll get you for that!"**

I burst down the sidewalk, cookies in hand. When I turn the corner to the main street, I enter a sea of umbrellas and ponchos. It's still raining hard, but not as much as it was ten minutes ago. I slip between random persons easily. (There are certain advantages to being small.) Ami just shoves right through them.

"Gomen!" she calls over her shoulder.

_Note to self: Do not get in Ami's way._

I laugh in my head as I veer around several corners. I'm out of breath, but I know Ami's right on my tail. I take refuge in a crowd crossing the street, hiding in the center. We're all the way across just as I spy Ami round the corner, shouting my name.

"**Satu!"** Ami bellows, **"Half those cookies are mine!"**

The two-dozen people near her exchange glances, mumble, and nervously move away.

Ami has no sense of self-consciousness….

"**If you've eaten all those cookies before I get there," **she yells across the busy intersection,** "why I'll hang you upside down by your underwear and do the Heimlich on you until you barf them all up and make you eat them again! They don't taste so good the second time!"**

…Whatsoever.

More people eyeball her and remove themselves to a five-foot radius. They block her out of their sight with their umbrellas. Ami pays them no mind. She pretends to have a telescope, holding her hands up to her eye and scanning the crowd. I have to listen close to hear what she's saying.

"I spy…with my…little eye…" she mutters**. "A kawaii chibi shurinpu!"**

_EEK! She sees me!_

She charges forward. Whatever people were still in Ami's path after that was immediately bowled over. A short "Gomen!" is all they get for their expenses.

I dart out from the protection of the crowd, caught in the thrill of mock-terror. Vaulting around another corner, I'm totally lost, but Ami is still in hot pursuit. She knows these streets better than she knows the track, and that's saying something. So she'll be able to get me out of this.

Running at an easy lope behind me, she switches between calling **"Satu!"** and **"Kawaii Chibi Shurinpu!"** earning more odd stares than I care to count.

_People have too many nicknames for me. You know that?_ I think to myself.

_You started it,_ I answer back

I slip in a puddle as I round another corner and slam head first into a street sign.

_You really shouldn't talk to yourself while running, Unicorn._

I gingerly touch the throbbing lump on my forehead. I think it protrudes about half an inch.

"—**ibi Shurinpu!"**

_Whoops! Here she comes!_

Giving my head one last shake, I fly down the street. I hope the cookies aren't too soggy. At least I haven't squeezed them to crumbs.

I'm running blind. For a while I even shut my eyes, not that it really makes a difference. I have no clue where I am. I make random turns and cross the street where I can. Hey, what the heck? Amy can bail me out.

Before long, I'm wheezing and my legs are starting to tremble. This is _way_ too much running for one person in one day. The ground feels different. That just must be my legs giving out. Our chase can't last for much longer, but I know Ami will save me before I collapse.

"**Satu! I _got_ you!"**

Ami catches up easily from behind. On "got" she grabs me around the middle and swoops me up into her arms. I'm so small that sometimes Ami forgets treats me like a little kid. Well, actually, she does it a lot.

I really don't mind.

Laughing silently, I surrender the cookies. Ami snatches them like they were a trophy and eats her first one whole. Smiling wide as chocolate crumbs tumble out of her lips.

Suddenly, a new sound reaches our ears: _Silence_. We our eyes slowly move away from each other. We gawk at the amazing change of scenery.

I have no idea how we got here, or where exactly "here" is, but we're in a park, a _beautiful_ park. There are trees and benches…and I think I can smell the ocean. All the paths are just sod. To our left is a small bridge that goes over a stream. It's so quiet compared to the city.

"Wow…." Ami whispers, as if we were in a library.

We gape at the park. Birds are chirping tentatively, asking each other if the rain is over, the stream is murmuring quietly, and the storm has calmed to a dawdling drizzle.

I slip down from Ami's arms. "Dazed in awed" would be some good words to describe the look on her face. She looks like a little kid again. I can remember her looking like that. Once, a long time ago…

_No! Nope, nix, nuh-uh! I am not thinking about things that happened long ago!_

I search for something to distract myself. Aha! The stream!

_I can't help but wonder if they have…_

I run over to the bridge, peering over the rim.

_Koi! _

I love koi! They're so pretty, all orange and white and red. They try to eat the raindrops that splash on the surface of the water. It looks like they're trying to talk to me, but all their words get stuck in the water. I know I'm being childish, but I'm having so much fun!

Ami comes wandering in my direction. She's still looking around, soaking it all in. When she looks at me, it's like she doesn't recognize me for a second. The confusion flickers across her face, making her frown slightly. Then her brain clicks into gear and she smiles while trotting up to me.

I point excitedly at the water, tapping my feet up and down on the bridge. I like the hollow sound it makes.

"Whadija find, Satu?" she peers over the top rail. "Koi! Wow! I think I have some bread in my bag. You wanna feed them when the rain stops?"

I bob my head up and down happily. She gives me this billion-dollar smile. She could win over even the most grudging of people with that grin. I think she got it from her grandmother.

"Oi! Wanna sit over there and eat our cookies? I'm starved from that run!"

_I've been starved since breakfast._

We both plop ourselves down on the wooden bench next to the river, under a tree. We're drenched, dripping and getting wetter. Not that we care. We munch down on the—slightly squishy, but—delicious cookies. My mouth is a river of saliva.

Ami is one year older than me. She may look like a stick but she eats like a pig. (She'll end up just like Mrs. Ito one day.) Besides that billion-dollar smile, Ami has bouncy blonde curls, clipped just below her ears. Her blue eyes sparkle at every person she likes—so in other words, everybody. She laughs easy and smiles twice as often. If Keiko weren't around, Ami would probably be everyone's favorite. She has ten guys I can name right off the bat who _would_ be her boyfriend—if she ever slowed down enough.

I lean back and kick my feet back and forth. It's fun, but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have your feet touch the ground when you sit.

"Oi! Look, Satu! The sun is coming out!"

I glance up, mid-chew of my second cookie. Through the leaves of our tree I can see the clouds braking up. A shaft of light slants in between a crack and strikes me in the eye.

_Ack!_

I lean forward, out of the direct path of the light. Ami saw and laughed so hard she fell off the bench. I continue chomping on my double-chocolate-chunk cookie cantankerously.

I snatch up my last cookie. Ami has already finished her three. I nibble furiously while she rolls around on the ground, laughing.

_This is all jut hilarious for you, isn't it? Huh! Well _**you**_ are getting dirty_

"I know, I know," Ami giggles, winding down. "It's just that you're so hilarious! Even the littlest things with you make me crack up! You're just so much fun to be around! I mean…I know it was freaky and all, but I just can't figure out why everyone left you after—oh!" The last half of my last cookie drops to the ground.

I flinch.

Her eyes widen.

You see…

…Besides my family…

…The Ito family…

…Are the only ones…

…Who _know_.

We're both still, frozen by the past. I huddle deep inside myself, carefully locking up my memories. Tears try to break free.

"Gomen-nasai," Ami whispers, "Satu."

I raise my head, slowly, to look at her. The rain has tamed the wild curls in her hair, now the sun strikes them and they glitter in the light. Her eyes are shimmering with tears. She is sorry, but am I forgiving?

"Daiouka… Satu?"

I sigh and nod my head slowly.

_Daijoubu, Ami._

She smiles gratefully, picking herself up from the ground and embracing me in a bone-crushing bear hug.

"That's my Kawaii Chibi Shurinpu."

* * *

Ami did have bread in her bag, a whole loaf, in fact. She and I fed it all to the koi. I thought her Obaa-chan, Mrs. Ito, would be angry, but then she started talking about how they were always afraid she was starving herself. She said the koi were emaciated compared to her. (I don't doubt it. Mrs. Ito thinks anyone even a little thinner than her is skin and bones.)

Ami's really talkative; all I do is listen. It's hard to stop Ami from doing most things. The least of which is talking. So I just kick back, relax, and throw bread-balls to the hungry koi.

I loose track of time while Ami talks. About her class going crazy, (she was in Home Economics) her teacher being infuriated, and how she bets the school will be closed tomorrow. She talks about what Mrs. Ito's been up to, with all her latest cooking creations. She even talks about guys. The gorgeous guys, the geeky guys and the jock guys—all of whichpursue, stalk, and try to show off forher until their hair falls out of place, they have to grab their inhalers, or they pass out. Which led her back to how she was one of the first ones out of the school today.

"You should have seen it!" Ami laughs, "Ms Yoshida went absolutely out of her mind! She kept yelling about budgets and who was going to clean it up." (Ms Yoshida is notorious for _never_ cleaning anything.) "Then she really went bonkers when everyone started leaving! Oh, it was grand!"

I was well out of bread by this time, and I'd started making braided crowns from the grass. I place the first one on Ami's head. She doesn't notice.

_Scatterbrain._

"Hm?"

Maybe she noticed after all.

"Ah! What time is it?" She whips out her watch. "Ack, it's almosttwo o'clock! Obaa-chan will be so worried! We gotta go, Satu! C'mon!"

Before I know what's happening, she snatches up her bag _and_ _me _and takes off running. I clamber around to her back while we zoom through the park. Can you tell this happens to me _way_ to often? Oh well, at least it saves me from more running.

She sprints full out. I told you she was a track star. I cling to her back like a monkey. With Ami it's either take it or leave it, so if I want to hitchhike I have to work for it! She's not holding onto me in anyway. My legs are wrapped around her waist, clasped together at the ankles. I squeeze her with my legs to keep myself in from bouncing around too much. I have my elbows hooked over her shoulders, locking me in place. I hold her bag just below her chin so her arms are free to swing. Like I said, I have to work for my ride.

We started doing this when she was little. (I was always little.) Ami just _could not_ stand how slow I was. So one day she just picked me up and started to run. I guess that's how it started.

After about ten minutes, Ami's brought us out of the park and into some suburbs. It's a real classy place, huge houses, each with a fence. Even the trees have fences around them.

Ami slows her run to an easy trot. That's good; I'm ready to fall.

"Oi! Shurinpu! How you doin' up there?"

I set my chin on her right shoulder. That means I'm fine.

"You wanna stop by Obaa-chan's for a bite?"

I tap her left shoulder with my chin. That means no thanks.

"Okay, want down?"

I stack my head on top of hers. That means yes.

Ami takes her bag as I slip down her back, land hard, trip, fall off the sidewalk and bang the back of my head on one of those metal fences around a tree. Winding up on my keester in, you guessed it, another mud puddle.

"Ha ha! There you go again! This time I see you're trying to consume dirt through your hind end!"

She pulls me to my feet, again. We amble down the sidewalk. Ami's breathing hard, but trying not to show it. She laughs to cover up the need for oxygen.

Suddenly, I stop.

"Nani?" questions Ami.

I take a step closer to her, half hiding behind her skirt.

_Can't she see him?_

Facing us is a boy. He's short and has black hair with a white starburst in front. He's wearing all black too, except for his white headband. He's putting out a distinct "Goth" vibe.

He's only standing about 50 feet way, but he's not standing on the sidewalk. He's standing on a tree branch that's 20 feet in the air! Just standing there! Like he did it everyday! The boy and I stare at each other for a while. Well, it was more like I was staring while he glared. I'm getting chills.

Now I notice his eyes. It feels like a bottomless pit has just opened up right beside me and my stomach got so scared that it climbed out of me hopped right in. Bye-bye tummy.

His eyes are garnet red. They hold contempt for me, contempt for Ami and small toleration for the whole world around us. Disdain justpours out of them.

_There is only one person in this world that they are looking for, _I think, somehow without thinking at all. _We are not he. Thus,_ _we…_

… _are worthless and not worth my time. But, if proved a nuisance, they are easily disposed of._

"Satu? Daiouka?" Ami touches my shoulder and I jump so hard that I knock us both over.

Scrambling to my feet, I don't see the boy anywhere. I don't trust that, though. Never taking my eyes off the tree, I grab Ami's hand and start tugging her across the street as fast as my feet will go.

I imagine I hear two words drift across my mind _Smart Girl_, I can't be sure. In my mind, I see the boy smirking. I twirl to face the tree, but all I see is a black shadow on the fleeting edge of my vision.

_Bird, _I think to myself. _It's a raven._ Something on the border of my brain, however, tells me otherwise.

"What was that all about?" Ami demands. She doesn't like being pushed around.

_Bentsu ni_, I think instantaneously, I don't know why. For some reason I don't want her to know anything about what she couldn't see. Ami looks at me strangely.

_Maybe I _**am**_ going crazy._

"Satu, you're shaking!"

I hold up my hands. They're quivering.

"You didn't catch a cold? You sure you're all right?"

I nod hastily. Ami backs off.

"Okay, I'm going home. Do you have any idea where you are?"

I start to nod, look around, and shake my head.

Ami sighs sadly. "You have no sense of direction, do you?"

_No, you just have an incredibly perceptive one._

"Shurinpu, Shurinpu… you take a left at this street. Go left again, then right. Stay on this street for two turns, and then turn left. This may seem a like the round-about way, but it'll keep you away from the bad side of town. Follow that road all the way down until you reach the school. You know how to get home from there, right?"

_Left, right two, left, right, stay on that road. Got it._

I bob my head happily.

"Alright!" Ami says, turns and starts to jog away. "Call me if you need anything. Ja ne!" She stops abruptly, smacking herself on the head. "Baka… baka… baka…" she mutters to herself as she digs through her bag. "Aha! Satu, catch!"

She throws her tin bento at me. _It_ catches _me_ right below the ribs, knocking the wind out of me.

"Kako!" she yells, flashing that billion-dollar smile at me one last time before loping away.

I gaze at it curiously, wondering what could be inside. I get a tingling feeling at the back of my neck. Most likely something that will pop out at me the instant I open it. That's what happened last time she gave me something.

I walk on. The tingling increases, I ignore it.

_Go away_, I think irritably.

I turn left, walking into the middle of the street. Something stabs me in the back of neck.

I twist around, but no one's there. Could it have been Ami? No, she's already turned the corner There's no way she could have done it. I hold the nape of my neck. I expect to feel blood, but nothing's there.

Bento forgotten, I look about skeptically before turning around again.

And again, I am stabbed.

I whip around, eyes darting back and forth, probing for the culprit. No one is to be seen. I don't even hear anything. I touch the back of my neck and my hand comes away clean.

Suspiciously, I turn back toward my way home.

I get stabbed. I twirl around. No noise, no blood, no one in sight.

I'm getting really PO'd at this point. But this time I try turning around slowly. Just as slowly, a force starts pressing on my the base of my skull. As I turn, it increases until it feels like someone's sticking a knife in my neck. I try taking a step in this direction. A rattling wave of _something _goes through me, forcing my knees to buckle. I fall and scuttle backwards. The pressure relents and the tingling resumes.

I try the same thing in both other directions. Each time I'm unable to go more than a step.

_Oh great,_ I think, _now I have to go that way or get hit by a car._

Tentatively, I take small steps in the direction from where I came. Thankfully, the tingling grows stronger, but I'm not attacked again. The prickling tingle actually sooths the afflicted area.

I gain confidence and start to run.

I could learn to hate running.

* * *

The sun slants in through the forest canopy. It must be at least three. My legs are aching. I'm hungry. But the tingling continues, so my legs must as well.

I've already walked through the classy neighborhood, been chased by a cat, a Doberman Pincher and a German Shepard. Sheesh! Hadn't these people heard of shutting their gates?

After that, I walked through an old lady's yard. How do I know it was an old lady? Because she ran out of her house and started whacking me with a broom until I tumbled down a slope. As if I needed any more help falling.

I'm half shocked when I come upon a small steam. I think it's the same one from the park. It's kind of nice to see something that moves but doesn't chase me.

_Well, hello there, _I greet it.

A little wave splashes up against the bank at my feet. As ludicrous as it sounds, it's almost like the stream was saying hello to me, too.

_I really don't need to be any wetter, silly. _I chide it in my head._ I was actually drying out quite nicely._

It burbles as it continues gushing forth, swollen from the heavy rain. I smile at it, deciding it's as good as company as I've had in this forest, and walk beside it. Each trudging step I take causes mud to spurt up around my shoes. When I pick them up, they make horrible sucking sounds.

I almost duck under a low-hanging tree branch. That's right, _almost_.

Even lying on the ground, sprawled out from yet another object impacting with my head, the tingling increases to a warning buzz. I half-groan, heaving myself into a sitting position.

_I'm going. I'm going! _I think to the tingle, _no need to get violet about it. Sheesh!_

I push myself upward using my hands, effectively stabbing one on a thistle. I hop about, waving my hand around like an idiot and blowing at it. Not that it helps any.

_AHHHH! Itai! Ahhh! It stings! Oh, it stings! _

Breathing through clenched teeth, I calm down. Then, gingerly, begin to pluck the tiny thorns out of my right hand. Luckily, it's not bleeding. This must be the tingle's way of vengence.

The buzz threatens to increase further. So I keep struggling through mud, vegetation, low branches and thorns, repeatedly poking instead of plucking at the little spikes. Finally, I give up. Several are still embedded in my skin. I think they'll work their way out.

I hadn't even realized where I was going. I realize that the bank has dropped down several feet and though the stream still flows swiftly, it's gotten much quieter. But this quiet isn't like what was in the park. This quiet is eerie. As if everything is holding it's breath, waiting.

My feet carry me to a large, circular clearing. This place hasn't seen a human hand for years. Meadow grass and bright hollyhocks rise to be even with my shoulder. (Not that that's saying much.) Sunflowers rest their huge heads against the trees that rim the clearing. I step between two of these mammoth flowers and into the grass. Then I see, ascending to my right on the outer of the circle edge, is the gigantic oak from my dream.

The stream has turned away from me, curving around the colossal tree. Hidden by the steep bank and tall grass, I can't even see its waters now. I start to creep towards it, but the tingle warns me off. I have no choice but to walk past the tree.

Tiptoeing warily across the clearing, I catch myself ducking my head below the grass.

_You're an idiot, _I tell myself. _Whose here to see you?_

_I'm only an idiot every once in a while, _I answered back. _You never know! There _**could** _be something here!_

_Tch, paranoid baka._

_Am not!_

_Are too!_

_Not! _

_Too!_

_Not!_

So engaged in this highly intellectual mental conversation with myself, I failed to notice that I had passed the tree. I had also turned around it, unthinkingly, and was coming very close to the lip of the bank. I took one step over the edge…

_Are no—stop! _

But it was too late. I tip over the brim and nose-dive off the cliff of the bank. Somehow, a vine snags my leg, twisting me around in midair, resulting in a helpful belly flop instead of a likely fatal dive. But now I'm hanging upside-down in the water. I can't see anything or touch bottom with my hand. The same vine that saved me is now holding me hostage. Floundering about, I realize that I could really drown and there's no plump Mrs. Ito or smiling Ami to save me.

Thinking fast, I stop flailing to conserve oxygen as I try to work my foot free. To keep my panic down I start making a list.

**Things I Hate: **

_Anything that hits me in the head_

_Falling_

_Mud_

_Thorns_

_Things that hurt me_

_Things tha…that chase me_

_Things that…that try to…to…drown...me..._

_Passing…out…._

The edges of my vision start to fog up. I can't think clearly. A shadow passes over the sun at the same time I make-out a milky outline in the water in front of me. It waves and flows with the water.

_Cloud,_ I think groggily, _it's the reflection on the water._ Then, with more clarity, I realize something. _Why would the cloud's reflection be _**in**_ the water?_

Confused, I start to panic again. But the day's worn me out, and I don't have any energy left to struggle. I hang limply by the vine as the milky form comes closer, closer.

I gasp as a big hand wraps around my ankle, yanking me gruffly out of the water. It loosens the vine, and moves away, letting me splash into the steam again. My arms thrash about, seeking a handhold. My right hand finds one. Forgetting the thorns, I cling to whatever-it-is and pull myself up.

Long, silken, silver hair trailed into the water. White, furry, pointed ears set decidedly back. Sharp, amber gold eyes, that were trying to pierce my very soul. His throat flashed red as he panted, a long canine hanging over one lip.

It was his hand I had latched onto, a pale hand with long, sharp fingernails.

My first thought? What else would it be except…

_I'm going to die._

* * *

Dun dun DAH! Cliffhanger! ; P 

I'd actually thought about cutting this chapter a lot sooner, but then I decided that since I'd been gone for so long that you guys deserved a really long chapter. Then I got carried away. So I figured a cliffie would even it out. Heehee, I'm so evil. I noticed that My otaku webadress didn't show up in the last one, so I'll try it one more time. Go here: Just take out all the spaces when you copy it in the URL bar.

Looket! I even put the Glossary in alphabetical order! -

**Glossary**

Abunai – Watch out/ Danger!

Baka - Idiot, stupid person

Bento – A Lunchbox

Bentsu ni – a multi purpose negative phrase, usually translated as 'nothing' or 'not really'

Daiouka – Are you okay?

Daijoubu – Don't worry, I'm okay, I'll be all right, ect.

Gomen-nasi – I am very sorry

Gomen – Sorry

Itai – Ow!

Kami- God

Kako – Present

Kawaii Chibi Shurinpu – Cute little shrimp, Ami's nickname for Toki

Nani – What?

Obaa-chan – Grandmother

Oi – Hey!

Wok – A large frying skillet. Not really Japanese, but just had to make sure people knew what it was

**Footnotes**

I continue chomping on my double-chocolate-chunk cookie cantankerously – how many c's do I see? One, two three….

Floundering about, I realize that I could really drown and there's no plump Mrs. Ito or smiling Ami to save me – There was something I wanted to point out here, but now I forget what it was…

Thanks for reading! Tell me what I can improve on please! Until next time, MOO!


	4. Caring for a Kitsune

So sorry it's taken so long! Babysitting all week has really worn me out, but given me an idea for a new story. This chapter is long, but switches perspective, so don't get confused when the second part backtracks. Now for some replies!

**Chapter 4: Caring for a Kitsune**

**Youko Kurama**

The hand that had flailed so frantically for mine is now tense and quivering. I can sense it's owners panic, her confusion. Her scent just oozes of fear. She wants to bolt, to run like a frightened rabbit, but she knows she could not escape me.

Yet, in reality, she is the stronger here. Just supporting her small hand and sitting upright is taxing. The only control I have over her is in her own fear. The battle used up all my reservoirs. I had even used up the last of my mastery over plants by saving her scrawny neck from that fall. Dam her! What is it about this stupid little ningen that made me think…what had I thought?

I'd thought that she was…help—one of the Tantei. Her scent… that must be it! Behind all the fear is the slightest whiff of Hiei. Yes, his scent of trees, dew and fire is unmistakable. Now where had this little ningen been that she'd been long enough in the Koorime's presence as to contract his scent? This is more interesting by the second.

My eyes study her. Besides the fact that she is touching the Legendary Spirit Thief, Youko Kurama, and has not been (as of yet) decapitated, she _unbearably_ normal. She had short, dark brown hair, murky brown eyes and skin that was not pale, nor tan. Her entire appearance reminds one of a mud puddle. Ah, yet here is something interesting. Her forehead is one conglomeration of blues, purples and black. Now how did that happen? What am I thinking, the stupid little ningen most liking ran into a pole. Other than the mountain of bruises on her forehead, she is small. Most likely around the age of nine, seeing as how her chest hasn't—

_What are you doing, _Shuichi demands. He is very weak as well, almost unconscious, but apparently not so much that he's unable interrupt my fun.

My gaze slips away from the terrified ningen, turning inward to converse with my own ningen side.

_Just having some fun._

_Fun? Oh, yes. We'll have lots of fun once you pass out and she contacts the authorities. I can see the headlines now: YOUNG GIRL FINDS REINCARNATED FOX SPIRIT WITHIN THE BODY OF STAR STUDENT MINAMINO SHUICHI! BEING HELD FOR RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION AT LOCAL ZOO._

_You forgot 'sexy reincarnated fox,' and a presentation sounds deliciously intriguing._

_Sometimes you disgust me. Can you imagine the mass memory wipes?_

_Yes, the people would be so disappointed to forget us._

I noticed that the ningen's eyes have been growing wider and she's shaking her head slowly.

_You're only going to make the situation worse with that attitude. _

Shuichi's thoughts are slothful. He's obviously struggling to converse with me.

_You've proven you're point. Rest. The last thing I need is for my host to die._

Turning most of my attention to the girl, she freezes. I attempt to even out my ragged panting, only to collapse back into wheezing. But I force myself to smirk. I need control over this situation.

My fingers snap around the girl's wrist. She jumps and pulls back. I expect her to scream, but no sound passes her open lips. No matter, she's already set herself off-balance.

_No, Youko. I'm fine. Please, you know your social skills leave much to be desired._

_Sleep, Shuichi._

I force him to surrender. He's gone almost immediately. Now I can finally get rid of this little nuisance that stands before me.

I give her arm one hard jerk with the last of my strength, falling backwards as I do.

She crashes into my chest. The impact knocks the breath out of me and pain streaks up from the large wound in my side. The burns across my chest throb in anguish. Her head slams into my nose and it starts to bleed as well.

_Wonderful_, I think, reaching up with one hand to stop the flow. My breath comes in jagged gasps. Even the weight of this little girl is making it hard to breathe.

We've been injured rather severely; no matter how much my pride protests. The fact is, Shuichi is down for the count and we don't have long before I lose consciousness. With the blood still flowing freely from my side, chest, nose and head, I realize in horror that I _can't_ simply banish or kill her.

This little girl is our only hope.

_I'm doomed._

**Shin Toki**

The demon's golden eyes freeze me. My mind is racing, trying to figure out how to get away. The youkai is eyeing me almost hungry. He's bleeding heavily from his side and chest. Does he want my blood to replace his?

_What are you doing!_

I jump. The youkai's features form a slight frown and his strange ears twitch backwards. He's still looking at me, but now it's like he's looking _through_ me. Which is even more frightening than his direct glare.

_Just having some fun._ The mischievous thought drifts through my mind.

_Fun? Oh, yes. We'll have lots of fun once you pass out and she contacts the authorities…_ the two voices bicker with themselves.

_I'm going crazy, _I think. _I'm hearing voices, seeing a man with white dog ears and… is _that_ a _**tail**

… _deliciously intriguing._

…_you disgust me…._

I'm getting dizzy. Water swirls around my knees; my feet are sunk deep in the mud. I sway, gripping his hand lightly to keep my balance.

_No, I'm not crazy, I'm dreaming, _I think as an irritated _…make the situation worse…_ passes through my head.

_Yes, that's it. All of today's been just one big nightmare. I never ate those rotten grapes. I never slammed my head into more things than I can count. The power never went out. I was never here, about to be eaten by a demon!_

The youkai's gaze snaps back to reality, to me. He's smirking like a fox, showing large, sharp teeth.

…_proven you're point. Rest. The last thing…die._

_He's going to eat me,_ I think.

I swallow hard. Suddenly, his fingers grip my hand like a vice. They're so long that wrap around my wrist and meet together with length to spare. It restrains me as I gasp and wrench back, almost tipping over in the gushing stream. The youkai grins evilly.

_No, Youko….social skills…_

_Sleep, Shuichi._

He jerks hard on my arm. I'm lifted out the mud, out of the water and I fly towards the youkai. I land hard—_on his chest._ All the air races out of his lungs with a _whoosh_. Despite the water, the mud, and all the blood, he smells of roses.

_That's it! I am officially dreaming!_

My already bruised head knocks into his face. I hear what sounds appallingly like his nose popping and blood trickles down his face and into my hair. I realize that his left hand is still gripping my right. With his other hand, he stems the blood flow.

_Wonderful…_

He opens his eyes. I can't look away. The piercing gold widens. Shock flashes across his face, quickly replaced by a sense of irony. Suddenly, I'm not afraid. It's a dream, and dreams can't hurt you.

_I'm doomed. _

The thought is very blunt, but I correct it.

_No, I'm dreaming. _I smile, unexpectedly happy. _How else can you explain a girl like me sitting on a fox youkai?_ That's weird, how'd I know he's a fox youkai?_ Hey! If I'm dreaming, that means I can do whatever I want!_

The guy is just sitting there with this stunned look on his face. I sit up, touching his chest as I do. His face crumples pain. Startled, I scramble off him, easily breaking his grip. He clutches the wound that I reopened.

I stand on the mud bank, akimbo, staring without guilt at him. He's wearing silvery white pants and what could have been the burned remains of a shirt near his sash/belt. Most of his clothing is in tatters, showing a well-muscled torso, chest, arms and lower legs. He's bleeding badly from his chest and one side; his eyes are clamped shut in pain. I can tell he's been there for a while, because the blood from his wound has stained the mud and water. For some reason, this isn't making me as queasy as it should.

_You're hurt,_ I think at him.

His eyes crack open again and I see irritation mingling with distrust and curiosity.

"Truly? How ever did you notice?" The sarcasm drips from his low voice.

_You have the greatest voice! Well, the blood kind of tipped me off._

His thoughts drift past me, _Thank you, Captain Obvious,_ but I catch them.

Grinning like the lunatic I'm sure I am, I spin like a ballerina in the sludge, snapping my heels together when I face him again. The action causes mud to splatter us both. I salute him with my pinkie finger.

_Yep, that's me! Captain Obvious, at your service, sir!_

He turns his head to stare at the sky, sighing melodramatically.

"Doomed," he repeats.

I scrunch my eyebrows at him, a little pout crossing my face.

_What? Don't you trust me?_

He turns his head back to me. His plaintive face and raised eyebrows are enough to give anyone the 'yeah, right' message.

_Really! Its no problem,_ I tell him. _I'll fix you._

I stroll over to him, placing my hands on his chest, the biggest wound. The flesh is charred black and reeks of burnt skin. Not that it bothers me any. The youkai, however, looks faintly alarmed.

"Little girl, have you ever done this before?"

_I'm not a little girl! And come to think of it, no._ I think nonchalantly. _But it couldn't be too hard. Besides, this is my dream, remember?_

I pay close attention to my hands, feeling the scorched flesh beneath them. With my mind, I go beyond my hands, feeling his skin tissue, muscle tissue and cells. First I dispatch the blacked flesh, peeling it away in patches while the youkai gasps, wincing.

_Sorry,_ I think at him, _This might hurt._

Peeling away the last of the useless flesh, I focus on the blood vessels I've torn open. I urge them so heal, repairing them. I pull at the cells, encouraging them to multiply. My hands tingle. The blood cells clone themselves quickly and I feel his heart pick up a natural beat. Next is the muscle. Everything is damaged badly where I'd peeled away the useless tissue. I wonder what could have caused such a wound? Pushing the matter from my mind, I continue urging the cells to multiply. The cells do as I ask and most of his tissue grows over the area.

_Well? _I tell them, _Keep going._

Their reply comes back to me in the form of intense weariness.

_Oh,_ I think, swaying with the answer. _I can take over from here._

I take each side of the muscle tissue with my mind, gently pulling them close. I have to knit the individual cells together, following the delicate pattern I remember seeing in a biology book. It took me a good ten minutes, but the bleeding had stopped.

The skin is easier. I'm able to stitch these layers together very quickly. That's good; all this mind work is making me tired. Finished, I take my hands from his chest and inspected my work. The skin there was a little paler, but it was strong.

The guy is giving me this incredulous look. "I can't believe you just did that," he admits.

_Well I said I was going to._ I thought, feeling slightly insulted. Putting it behind me, I smiled brightly. _How's it feel? Not too tight?_

He flexes, stretching the new muscle and skin. "It feels fine, but now I'm very tired."

_Now that you mention it, so am I. _As if to prove the point, I tip my head back and yawn.

_I'm loosing my focus…_ he thought.

"Your little stunt has drained the last of my energy." His voice is deadly calm. "It pains me, but I must ask a favor," he says quietly.

I grin, putting a hand behind my head. _Sorry 'bout that. Never done it before. If I had some practice I'm sure I cou—_

"**Listen, mortal!"**

I jump. His voice was hardly more than a whisper, but it seemed like he was yelling. Startled, I search his face. Blood lingers from his nose. Glossy, his eyes focus and unfocused. His thoughts are muddled; there is something he has to tell me. People he needs. One I smelt of, one that wore my uniform … _Can't think!_

My head aches. I shake it back and forth. Memories that aren't mine push their way to the surface. What does that boy with the white bandanna have to do with anything? Why is the bandanna more important than his black clothing and hair? Who is he? What's happening!

"_Find the others,"_ the youkai whispers.

It feels like everything is whirling around me. The shrill ringing comes back. My temples throb. Bursts of color go off behind my eyes like fireworks.

_Mom! Don't! _

I can't see anything, can't hear past the ringing, can't feel past the throbbing.

_Someone, help me!_

The internal fireworks display goes into its grand finale as the ringing reaches fever pitch.

"_**Sumi! NO!"**_

A last explosion of sound, colors and pain zap me like lightning. Then everything dies away in an un-earthly silence.

_I hate fireworks_ I think. Then I black out.

How lame.

**

* * *

**

_Out of control, no, no, let me, I can do it!_

_Bad mistake, shouldn't have done that, should've let her go._

_Breathing hard, heart about to explode, body trembling_

_Home, the Girl, lighting_

_Rain, mud, running again. Always running_

_Pain, fear, fire. So many mistakes._

_Slipping, falling, drowning._

_No, not drowning, clinging to root, waiting._

_It comes, bright, shining, hopeful._

_It comes._

For the second time today, I'm wishing I were dead. Dead seems so much easier than what this feels like. My head is throbbing dully. My legs ache like they've been running all day or something, maybe because they _have_.

_What time is it?_ I think to myself. _Oh, no. I forgot to get _his _painkillers. _He'll _kill me!_

I crack open an eye, but the leafy green foliage doesn't compute. I should be staring at my ceiling. What's that smell? Water, wet earth and…_plants?_ I sit up abruptly, trying to ignore the immense wave of dizziness it causes.

_Holey rusted metal, Batman, _I think. _Where in the world am I and who took my bed?_

I'm sitting in a mud bank to the side of a gurgling creek. The water is only about two feet deep, but it looks like it was a lot higher just a while back. The little bit of not-so-dry land I'm on slopes rather steeply to the water over a span of six or seven feet. The cliffs on either side of the creek seem to be about this high, too.

_How'm I gonna get out?_

Someone groans to my left and I nearly jump out of my skin. A young man in lying in the mud, muscles tensing and relaxing erratically. His long, red hair is matted and he looks like he was in one heck've a fight. His side is torn open, his nose and mouth are surrounded by dried blood.

_Blood._

I gag, swallowing. Gagging again, I can't take it and give up the fight, leaving everything I'd eaten that day in a stinking pile near the water. I wipe my mouth with a sleeve, shoving the unfortunate rock into the creek. That takes care of most of the smell.

My eyes are drawn back to the man. I crawl over to him, weak from retching. Besides the wound that occupies most of his side, there's a pale patch of skin on his chest, surrounded by singed material. (Not that I was looking at his chest, or anything!) He's wearing white pants and a white long sleeved shirt, most of which is in tatters. His eyes are clamped shut in pain.

A piece of mud drips off my hair, splattering on his cheek. His eyes flutter open, and for a split second I see two green eyes, like twin emeralds. But they close quickly as another spasm of pain races through him. His whole body tenses up, then relaxes. His breathing evens out. It appears that he's fallen asleep.

I hold my breath as I lean in and stare at him.

_Is he … dead?_

Timidly, ready to snatch my hand back, I reach out to his neck. When he doesn't move, I place two fingers on the vein beside his jugular. A faint pulse lifts my fingers.

_No, he has a heartbeat._

I take my hand away and look at him. He's still leaking blood from his side. Now I notice his forehead is bleeding, too. He'll die soon if his wounds aren't addressed.

My stomach heaves again and I have to shut my mouth to avoid puking on the pour guy. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite fast enough. A cupful of bile splashes over his torso, staining what's left of his shirt. He twitches.

_O Kami, don't let him wake up now._

Someone must have been listening, because he calms and his breathing pattern resumes.

_Okay, Stupid. Now look what you've gotten yourself into._

_Yeah, yeah. I_ know _already!_

Options. There are always options, but for there to be options, there must be questions. First of all, how'd we even get down here? Am I even responsible for this guy? What _were_ we doing?

Answering the most important of those, my other side answers, _It's none of your concern whether he lives or dies._ _Leave him for the buzzards! Mwahaha!_

_Or I could take him home and name him George. You're so very helpful, _I think sarcastically.

But I know better. He needs my help, even if just to give him a new shirt. First things first, though.

I walk along the bank, looking for a way out. Ten feet from the bend, the far cliff dips down to water level. Cautiously, I rock-hop halfway across. That's when my foot slips and I fall in the water, stirring up mud. To my amazement, the water is only a few inches deep here.

Standing, I wring out my skirt and clamber up the bank. I find myself in the same clearing, in the same meadow of impossibly tall flowers. But I'd never been here before, had I?

Suddenly, it all comes rushing back. The bizarre tingle, the hike through the forest, the stream, the youkai….

I dash back into the creek, tripping and sliding my way back to the man. He's still there, still breathing, still bleeding slowly.

I collapse in bewilderment. What happened to the youkai? Could _he_ be that demon from my dream? But if it were a dream, how'd I get here? Sleepwalking? Where'd I go to sleep!

_But if I was dreaming, then I dreamed twice. Because I know I had that storm dream again…._

I look up, scanning the muddy cliff in front of me.

_Oh, crap._

There it is, the tree root that I hit my head on in the dream, about three feet up the cliff. I turn around. Sure enough, the opposite bank looks like the exact same one from my dream, save for the rain and darkness. I wait, half-expecting it to start glowing.

_Baka, baka, baka! Think! You have a real problem. How are you going to get that guy out of here?_

_Heh, drag him by the foot, _my other side answers.

_You're just being so helpful today, ya know that?_

I stop myself from thinking anything while I crouch by the man. Vaguely, I remember a stance that should allow a person to carry someone much large than herself. A 'Fireman's Carry', it was called.

Praying he wouldn't wake up, I gently lifted his right arm over my left shoulder. Now I should wrap my right arm around his left leg, pulling him onto my back. But I uh… can't reach it.

_Okay, Plan B…._

_The foot?_

_No!_

I let him slide back into the mud. This time, I sling each of his arms over my shoulders, respectively. His head falls on my left shoulder, making the weight seem uneven. Shrugging until his head falls back, I begin to drag him through the mud.

_Ugh! How much does this guy weigh? _I grunted.

_Unlike you, he's been well fed and exercises regularly. Muscle weighs more than fat, you know. _

I groan, _So in other words he's almost twice my size and twice my weight._

_Most likely._

**

* * *

**

By the time I heave him out of the creek, past the meadow, through the woods, and to the foot of a _very_ tall hill, it's been a good two hours. No kidding. I've stopped to rest for the fifth time. My back is killing me.

_Have we made it to Grandma's House yet?_ I ask myself, panting heavily. Who knew two lower legs and feet could put up such a drag factor?

For once, my other half doesn't answer. She's been very quiet during this whole ordeal. I can't shake the intense feeling of de ja vu. I'm almost dizzy from it, but I've started to accept the idea that maybe I _have_ been here before.

Lugging the still-snoozing guy on my back again, I set up the hill. Only three feet up, I discover a rounded wooden plank set into the ground. I step over it, listening to the _klunk _sound that the man's legs make when they hit, then drag over the top of it. The ground is somewhat flat. Three feet away, I see another wooden plank set into the hill.

_Stairs, _I realize, _someone put stairs here! No wonder it felt like I was hitting every rock when I rolled down this hill._

I work my way up each stair as the path winds gently up to the summit of the hill. Wincing as the guy's legs hit every step. An hour later, his feet _klunk _over the last stair.

_That's gonna leave a mark,_ I think with a sigh. I leg go of his arms, letting him fall in an unceremonious heap at the top of the hill. I let myself fall to the ground as well.

The man groans and turns in his sleep.

_No!_

He rolls right over the edge and all the way…back down…the hill.

_O-oh! That's _**definitely**_ going to leave a mark, folks! _My other half announces.

I try to groan, watching as his knee catches on a shrub and he begins to somersault backwards. A flash of red is all that tells me his head is still on his shoulders.

_He'll be feeling that in the morning! _She sounds quite jovial.

Sighing empathetically, I begin the descent to retrieve him. I make it to the bottom; check his pulse, (how can this guy still be breathing?) I can't believe his neck isn't broken.

_Well, buddy, _I think quietly. _It's your fault for falling, sorry. _

**

* * *

**

Dragging that guy all the way back up the hill wasn't fun, but dragging him by his feet was easier.

_See? I have good ideas._

_No, _I think back, huffing and puffing at the top of the hill, this time with the guy out of rolling distance from the edge. _You have horrible and evil ideas that always turn out bad._

She doesn't comment.

Returning the man to his former position, draped off my shoulders, I wander up a smaller slope. To my amazement, I find the back of a house. No, not just a house, _Home._

There's a gap in the back wall that leads inside, but I need to see the front. Forgetting my lethargy, I cling tighter to the man's arms and dart up the slope. Finding a crumbled gap in the stone fence that surrounds the front yard, I scramble though, oblivious to his body banging about on the corners.

I stand in shock at the state of the front yard. Where are the extravagant flowers, the vines creeping up the walls? Not even the _grass_ seems to be growing.

I push open the front door, which is hanging haphazardly by the bottom hinge. It creaks inward, allowing me my first look at this house. But it seems so familiar.

Ten feet ahead of me is a staircase with a carved railing. Admiring the worn craftsmanship, I lug the guy and myself up, ignoring the _klunk-klunk-klunk _of his legs hitting each stair.

Upon reaching the top, I turn instinctively right, through another old door. I find myself in bathroom. There's no window in here; it's really dark. I feel around until I find the light switch. I flick it up and down, nothing happens. Either the power's still out or this place never had any.

Dropping the man at the door, I feel around the sink and find a broken medicine cabinet above. I rummaged around inside, finding one thin roll of gauze, some rubbing alcohol, a few cotton balls and a small packet of floss. Not much.

_Great, now I can take off any nail polish he's wearing and clean the plaque from between his teeth, _I think bitterly.

Taking the meager supplies from the cabinet and stashing them in my pocket, I drag the man backwards by the armpits. Backing down the hallway to our left, I kick open a door behind me, which flies off its hinges.

_Oops…._

_Nice going, _Shadow.

I ignore her, back into the room and lay him on the floor. Turning in a circle, I take in two windows and a bunk bed. I examine the lower one, which is wider than the top. It'd make a good recuperating bed.

Snooping around, I find a pair of rusty scissors and needles in a basket under the bed. Though I did have to dislodge the needles out of a scary-looking doll… (not going to think about that!) They're still okay to use, right?

I use the scissors to cut away what's left of his shirt. The gash on his one side is deeper than I'd thought. Leaving that for later, I dab some of the alcohol on a cotton ball. I clear the bangs out of his face and dab tentatively at the small cut there. His forehead wrinkles, but he stays otherwise still. I use what little of the gauze I have to wrap around his head twice, pinning it with a needle.

I stare thoughtfully at the wound on his side. I've cleaned it, but I don't have anything to bandage it with.

_If only I had that think roll of gauze from my medicine closet! _Just wishing, I think of my desire and call out mentally, _Olli-Olli-oxen-free!_

Suddenly, I feel a bulge in my skirt pocket. Gulping, I stick my fingers in and fish out the exact roll of gauze I'd been thinking of. It's the same one that had gotten stuck in my mouth this morning, though now it seems like a million years ago.

_B-but, that's not possible! I spit that out and it rolled down onto the floor! How's this happening!_

_What? You have what you wanted. Now do what you have to, Stupid._

Frowning, I address his wound. Clean the blood off with a rag and water from the sink, and begin to comb through his hair with my fingers. Then I realize that I'm still muddy and soaked.

I move him onto the lower bunk, and hurry off to the bathroom. After pounding on it twice, water finally starts flowing out of the faucet. I take off my skirt and shirt, rinsing as much as the mud from them as I can, hanging them over the shower curtain to dry.

_Great. Now you're in your underwear with a strange _**man** _in a strange house, the owner of which could return at any moment. What would your father say?_

I start blushing immediately. It'd probably be best not to tell _him_ that I'm taking care of a fatally injured stranger under a bed. It's not like _he_ hasn't been gone for a few days in a row before. I don't think _he'll_ worry about me.

In any case, I'd rather not be caught without my clothes on. So instead of hang-drying, I whirl my skirt and flap it up and down. After an hour or so, my arms are ready to drop dead, but the skirt is dry enough to wear. The process is repeated with my shirt.

I walk into the room where I left him. Turning my back, I lift the shirt over my head and pull my arms through the damp sleeves. I flip my hair out the back, spinning at the same time.

The guy is on the bed, in the same position I left him in, but with his eyes half open! Hoping he hadn't seen me with my shirt off, I kneel beside him. For some reason, I think at him. Yeah, I know, it's not like I'm a telepath or anything. But it worked in my dream.

_What's your name?_

I must still be dreaming, because he answers me back.

Staring at me a moment longer than he should have, he finally mumbles, "Kur—Shuichi," before his eyes close and he falls back to sleep.

I lean back on my heels.

_Kur-shuichi. What a strange name._

I set an elbow on the worn-out, moth-eaten mattress. Without meaning to, I lay my head down and fall asleep.

**

* * *

**

So how did I do on interpreting Youko? Yes, I know there are dozens of different ways to spell the characters' names.

**Glossary**

Koorime- The floating island that Hiei is from. Also used to describe it's inhabitants.

Tantei- Short for the Reikai Tantei. Meaning, Spirit Detectives

Youkai- A demon

Wow, normally there's a lot more Japanese than that…

**Footnotes**

_Yep, that's me! Captain Obvious, at your service, sir! –_ Is it just me, or are the Captain Obvious jokes really popular? Couldn't help myself.

_I hate fireworks-_ If you didn't read my songfic, Independence Day, (go read it!) then you won't understand this.

_Holey rusted metal, Batman, _I think. _Where in the world am I and who took my bed?- _This are quotes, the former is from Batman Forever, the second from a book I read but can't remember.

Now for some review replies!

Lady-of-the-Dragon-Flame - Yay! Thank you! Toki's thoughts are actually based on some of the conversations I have with my muses. Mostly my Hiei-ish one. (He needs a name) Which leads me to think that I'm skitzo phrenic, but then I realize that you have to be just a little crazy to write good stories! There may be many more OCs, seeing as how I can't resist throwing someone new in there to shake things up!

Icefire2- Yup, yup, yup! The whole gang should be in the next one! #4 is the one I've been dying to write. hops up and down in excitement Huzzah! You don't miss a thing, do ya? That's good! I can't tell about the lightning just yet, but I will tell you that speeding bus rolls by with an advertisement for TSB's otaku. Com name, Windfallen Star (That episode made me laugh so hard!) And the power outage? Let's say it was more like a Bus honks horn

Lady-of-the-Dragon-Flame - 0.0 You have quite the gaggle of muses in there, don't cha? I actually lost count of how many times Toki hit her head. ' O! I think I have just the thing you need! pulls out giant gerbil wheel from nowhere Ta-da! Now they can run forever and you can keep an eye on them! Thanks for the great comment!

animelover149 - You like them long? That's good, I like to write long chapters, even though it takes up a lot of time. I've been struggling to get to this point, because this is where things start cookin! But I had to set up Toki's normal life for you first, so I tried to do that in an interesting way, I think I did alright. Thanks to you!

feh- Sorry this one took so long. We were having lots of power-outages. Plus babysitting and camping really killed my compy time.

Fruit is NOT a Dessert- You are sooo right. Ice-cream and chocolate, cake is a dessert. Oh, anyway, thanks for adding me to your favorites!

Tricksterstheifgirl- You're the first one to pick up on that! Actually, loudspeaker comes on overhead: Updates, deleted scenes, secrets and more will be posted at www. myotaku. com/ users/ windfallen (underscore) star/ Thankyou! So that pretty much explains it.

Kiari the Hell Cat- It's one of the best you've read? eyes tear up I will do my best to continue! NOW WHERE'S MY PIXIE STICK! pixie stick is thrown somewhere from the crowd Thank you!

Thanks for all the great reviews, guys. It really means a lot. Till #5, Moo!

Go here!

www. myotaku. com/ users/ windfallen (underscore) star/


	5. The Search

I now have two pages of reviews! (squeals) Thanks soooo much to everyone! It means the world to me! A huge thanks also goes to Kuramafan-06, for her intense thought on Yoko Kurama. So, without further ado…

**Chapter 5: The Search**

For the first time in months, I don't dream of the thunderstorm and the Girl.

I dream of the sky.

I dream of the atmosphere and the stars swirling softly beyond it. Faintly, as though from far away, I hear singing. Soft and low, like my mother's voice from the other room.

Another voice drifts out from the night to accompany it. This voice is higher, sweeter and carefree, like the voice of a flower. A form slides across my vision, a girl of about fifteen on a long wooden oar. The picture shifts. Now I see her from above, flying over what looks very much like the roof of this house. Her long, blue tresses fly from a high ponytail. Her pink kimono matches her eyes. She stops singing, but her voice continues. Though, now it looses its carefree innocence.

_Where are you?_

I can hear her thoughts!

_Poor thing, where have you gotten to? I know you're not dead._

She flies on, past the house Kur-Shuichi and I am sleeping in. She wheels above the city, heading towards the apartment I live in.

_Why can't Hiei find him? It should be perfectly obvious with his Jagan…._

She hums a little tune to cheer herself.

_I'll send the boys out tomorrow. They'll find him. I know they will._

The girl turns her oar into a cloudbank, picking up her melody again. The song is suddenly cut off with a sparkle. I'd like to see it longer, but it's gone in a soft flash. Almost like something's saying,

_You'll get your chance._

**(space divider**)

It feels like I'm being shaken gently.

Drowsy, I think it's my mother.

I try to call out, ask her where she's been.

The feeling vanishes.

Then the real wake-up call arrives.

_Rrrrr-awrrr!_

If you can't tell, this is what happens when you barely have lunch, barf, and then skip dinner. In other words, as tummy says, "Feed me!"

I turn over, almost jumping out of my skin when my elbow slips off the mattress and fall with a crash to the floor. Kur-Shuichi moans in his sleep. I jump, my heart races while my brain catches up.

_Hm-m!_ The girl in my head quips, _You've fallen out of bed, had impact on a hard surface within your first five minutes of consciousness and there's a strange boy sleeping in the bed next to you. Everything seems to be in order!_

_You, _I order_, shut it!_

My stomach makes it's own demands known. Somehow I doubt there'll be anything editable in an abandoned house.

Jogging downstairs, I swing through the front door and into the plot of land out front. It can't really be called a yard. Food on the brain, I jog through the gap in the stone fence. There really should be a gate there, but the whole place is run down. What's the difference in one missing gate?

**(space divider**)

_Drat it **all**!_

Okay, so scavenging through a forest for hours can make a person grumpy. Adding hunger to this, it can drive a person mad, especially those who have no idea what food without an expiration date looks like.

Getting whapped in the face by branches, stumbling through poison ivy, bashing into trees that pop out from nowhere. That pretty much sums up what I've been doing for the past few hours. Honestly, it's like this forest has something against me!

_Most people who die from starvation, lost in the woods, are often no more than a foot from life-saving food._

I remember reading it in a book somewhere. If only I'd bothered to check it out! Cursing my lack of interest in botany, I continue to struggle through the trees.

I trip over a root and the forest coughs me up into the same clearing. I glare at all the sunny flowers, they smile back. Forging my way trough the flora, I plop down on one of the giant oak's roots.

Its bark is rough, but warm from the sun. I watch listlessly as ants crawl up the trunk, carrying bits of leaves for their own lunch. My other side hints at them.

_No way. I'd have to be starving to eat live, squirming bugs._

_Hate to burst your bubble, Stupid, but most people can't count half their ribs in the mirror._

I ignore her. So what if I hadn't had a decent meal in a while? It's not like I can't get by. I'll just go over to Ami's sometime. Mrs. Ito is always willing to stuff anyone who walks through the door.

_I really wish I had more of those cookies…_

I gasp.

_Ami's bento! She said it was a kako! Oh, where is it?_

I dig frantically through the greenery. Finding the bento trapped between two tree roots near where I fell. I thank my lucky stars as I pry it loose.

_Please have food and not some stupid trick…. Please have food!_

Undoing the metal clasps, I yank the lid open.

"**BOO!"**

Tumbling backwards off the tree root I was perched on, I land on my butt while the jack-in-box laughs.

"Ahahahahaha! Fool'd ja! Fool'd ja! Ahahahahaha!"

_No… Ami! I need food! How could you let me down?_

I grab Jack by the bell of his jester's hat, smushing him down into the box and clipping the clasps behind him. The creepy laughter stops. Ami _knows_ how much I hate clowns.

Disheartened, I trudge back towards the house. Maybe there'll be something to eat there after all.

**(space divider)**

My stomach is starting to cramp, as are all my other muscles.

_Need … food!_ I groan mentally.

_Nah, really? And here I thought you were an energizer bunny!_

_Do I look pink to you?_

I trudge around the stone fence, forgetting about the gap in my fatigue. That's weird, my footsteps sound heavy. I frown. They sound fast, too, with heavy breathing. I stop, the sound continues.

_That's not me! _I realize, twirling.

Too late.

I'm almost bowled over, but this guy must have fast reflexes. He grabs me up, tripping over his own feet in the process and falling. Thus, for the second time in two days, I find myself face down on some guy's chest.

"Whoa kid! Where'd you come from? I didn't even see you."

Wait, I recognize that voice! I scurry away, hunger momentarily forgotten. It's Kuwabara Kazuma. I like him. We share a class together, though I can't think of it now. He still has his uniform on. He's Elvis-styled hair is messed, like he's been running for a while now.

"Hey, kid." He obviously doesn't recognize me. "I'm lookin' for somebody. Have you seen a guy runin' around here?"

_Tch, _my other half says,_ thanks for being so specific. I'll have no problem identifying the person you're searching for by your acutely detailed description. _

I raise an eyebrow, hoping he'll somewhat of that idea. He's probably out for another fight. He was always coming to school with bruises.

"You know! He's got white hair, over 300 years old…" Kuwabara groans, "Oh come on! You can't miss him! He must be bleeding all over!"

Now the other eyebrow goes up. That sounds suspiciously like the youkai.

"**Kuwabara!" **

Another boy I've seen before runs up behind him. This one has back hair and a green jacket with a yellow shirt and blue jeans. He clouts Kuwabara forcefully on the back, forcing him cough instead of speak.

All I can think is, _No…freaking…way._

"Uh, what this numskull here means is that we're lookin' for a boy about 15 who's a bit scraped up. You seen 'em?"

I shake my head, though I'm sure my eyes are just about the right size to golf with.

"Well, uh, thanks anyhow!" he calls, grabbing Kuwabara roughly by the shoulder and leading him past me. They walk quickly, almost running. Once they're all the way to where the gavel slopes down towards the city, Urameshi Yusuke smacks Kuwabara upside the head.

"What did I tell you, dimwit! You can't tell people stuff like that! They just don't understand about demons and…" they muttered as they passed out of hearing range.

_Holy Kami, _I think, _there's a dead man walking._

Visibly shaking, I drag myself back to the bedroom I'd placed Kur-Shuichi in. Collapsing by his bed, my hand still grips the bento's handle. Not that the stupid thing does me any good. I smell… _cookies_.

_Now explain the symptoms to me again, Miss Shin? Okay, ridiculous dreams of fictional characters, vomiting, anorexia, want to adopt wounded strangers, hallucination… uh-huh. Yes, Miss Shin, I'm afraid you have an advanced case of insanity. _

_Leave me alone, _I think back irritably. _I would eat if there were anything edible around here!_

She looks pointedly at Kur-Shuichi.

_You are gross! Disgusting! I'd have to be a lot hungrier to consider cannibalism!_

_Ew! You're the one who thought of eating him! _She sneers; _I was merely suggesting you search his pockets._

_Leave me alone!_

Frustrated beyond thought, I pitch the bento at the opposite wall. It leaves a dent before falling to the floor and popping open. Luckily, that stupid clown-thing bounces out and under the bed. But I can't believe my eyes as twelve chocolate discs roll across the floor as well.

I dive at them like a madwoman, desperately sweeping them all back into the bento.

_Twelve! Oh Ami, you're a lifesaver!_

Thoughtlessly, I cram one after the other down my throat. At five, my stomach is bursting and the finicky thing now complains that it's too full. Hunger satisfied, my brain couldn't take any more stress. I lean over onto the bed and pass out.

I dream again, this time though it's Kur-Shuichi. Well, more like a picture of him. He's smiling slightly and standing in the back, next to, now here's a surprise, Kuwabara. In front of him is that scary little guy from yesterday! Next to that one is Urameshi. What, Keiko's here too! So is that blue-haired girl from my dream! I can understand the others; those are just there 'cause I'm loosing it. But why Keiko and Kuwabara?

_Are they looking for me…?_ I hear Kur-Shuichi think to himself, his thoughts spiraling across our minds.

Curious, I realize I'm dreaming, but can't help to think back

_Yes…. Is that bad?_

Then am surprised ay a response.

_Who is this? What…** What are you doing in my head! Get OUT!**_

I yelp in fright at the sudden ferocity of the thoughts, startling myself into conciseness. It's like a door was slammed and I were shut out.

The birds chirping outside are a comfort. The sunshine coming through the window seems out-of-place. I put my hands to my face. My whole body is trembling. My head throbs.

_Bakaga…uso… bakaga…_

But Kur-Shuichi is mumbling in his sleep. Something about leaving… no he's _telling_ someone to leave. Telling _Me_ to leave. Could it be possible that I was actually in his mind?

_Iie, it must be this house. I've got to get out…_

I gaze down at Kur-Shuichi, tossing and turning on the bottom bunk.

_If he really is a demon in disguise, then he should be more than capable of taking care of himself. _I think of the man in black, goose bumps rising on my arms. _Especially if that creepy Goth is on his side, not to mention Urameshi…._

I let the thought trail. Not wanting another piece of evidence to testify for my insanity.

_I'm leaving,_ I decide. _Before I can't._

**(space divider)**

Okay this one was shorter than the others. (Only 6 pages in size 10 Times New Roman font.) But I hope ye liked it anyways! I know it's getting confusing, so I highly recommend that you look at what I wrote to Kuramafan-06 (BIG THANKIES TO YOU!) on my otaku site. It may help explain a lot. Oh! And either you guys are checking out my site, or the visitor counter's gone haywire, inferring it was the former, thanks!

Glossary

Bakaga- Impossible!

Bento- A lunchbox, in this case, a tin one.

Uso- You're kidding me!

Huh. Hardly any Japanese at all in this one. Don't worry, there'll be more in the next one.

Review Replies:

Fruit is NOT a Dessert- Sorry for confusing you, I tried to be as clear as I could when I switched perspectives, cause I knew I'd mess something up. Yes, Kur-Shuichi came to me as an after thought. ((ish proud)) Thankies fer callin' meh clevers! 0.o Umm, without wax... That's...uh... nice, Steven...

Kiari the Hell Cat- Yes, I try to add a touch of humor to all my chappies, much to the misfortune of your "LOL" keys. - I've read and seen so many things that I don't know where they all come from. Loved IMing with you!

Icefire2- Sorry about the wait! - Yesh, this is where things finally get interesting. You have no idea how hard it was not to skip straight to this chapter! Ah, crap... just saw a complete different direction I could've gone with this story. Oh well. Too late now. -.-

Sonya-White-Angel- Thankies! The next one will be up soon, but I'm working on two other stories as well, so it might be a while.

Kuramafan-06- ((falls down on butt)) Woo! That's the longest comment I've ever seen! Thanks go to you just for taking the time to write it all out. You made some great points, too. Like I said to Icefire2, I've been dying to get to this part, because yes, things were rather pointless before. But everything I wrote in chapters 1-3… ((A big cow with a banner advertising her Otaku site for secrets and more, walks by, blocking your view.)) …so look closely. I believe that the souls of Yoko Kurama and Shuichi have blended to a point where they are almost indistinguishable, save for when the two have extremely different options on a subject, but even then it is more like being torn between yourself. Alas, for this part of my story to work, I have to use your second theory. But yes, we loyal fans were never fully explained to as how this works, so we may only guess. (Wow! I wrote a lot! Go to my otaku site if you want to read more. Cause there is… a lot more….)

narfmaster - What a strange name! - Cool! Actually, I need a good name for the evil little voice in Toki's head. (hint hint) All suggestions would be appreciated

Go here!

www. myotaku. com/ users/ windfallen (underscore) star/


	6. Dead Man Walkin

(Rises stiffly from the grave of homework, tests, babysitting, tennis, intense craft-work and paperwork to type at the keyboard.)

SHE LIIIIIIIIIIVVVES!

Had to say it. Sorry for being gone, and all, really busy and all those other excuses you routinely hear from me. But guess what? I'm going dog sledding over New Year's! It's a whole Ididerod training and winter survival camp thing for ten days! I'll even get out of school for the first two days after break ends! Woo! I'm so happy! But I will be going for ten days in sub-zero temperatures with no showers… that'll stink… **I'll** stink. Oh! On with a chapie!

**Warning for violence, strong language and suggestive themes in this chapter! **

We all knew the violence was coming, (Yay, violence! Fairly Odd Parents) Sorry about the cursing (cussing) but it's going to come into play in a later chapter. And the theme thing isn't descriptive, just, well, suggestive. (This picks up a bit after the last chapie ended, you might want to read the last few chapters before reading this.)

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Chapter 6 Dead Man Walkin'

_Ah, left, right two, left, right ,left, right? Argh! I don't know!_

_Why don't you ever listen to Ami? She told you how to get back to the school, not to navigate the back-alleys!_

_I do listen! I'm just no good with directions, and that stupid boy-who-was-NOT-a-demon distracted me!_

My "alter-ego" sighs.

_If you remember, why do you insist it was a dream?_

_Cause it's bakaga! Look, can we focus on the real problem here?_

_That you're insane? Okay, how does that make you feel?_

_You're not funny…_

_I'm hilarious._

I glare inwardly.

_No, the 'problem' is the accumulating _**gang**_ following us! I mean, me!_

_Oh, them? They don't look so tough._

I hazard a glance over my shoulder. Six teenage boys all dressed in jeans or leather and only one with a shirt on. Oh, but do chains draped all over your upper-half count as a shirt? They all have silver earrings with a dangling skull somewhere on their visible body. Lips, eyebrows, noses, ah…pecs… ears seemed to be the taboo place for this gang. However, dark mascara was most certainly not.

As I passed him, another man with a Godzilla hairstyle joined the group.

_Uh-huh…_

_Well, look at the bald one! You could probably take him._

_The bald one must weigh quadruple what I do!_

Indeed, Mr. Shinyhead's fat rolls wave with every step he took. Which is timed perfectly with his group's stride, whose stride is, coincidently I'm sure, in perfect step with mine.

My shoulders are starting to quiver. I walk faster to keep my knees from shaking.

The gang alters slightly, and keeps my pace.

_Okay, Miss I-know-all, now what are we going to do?_

_Why don't you ask those nice men to give you a piggy-back ride?_

I steal a peek over my shoulder just in time to see them spreading out across the alley, blocking all escape.

_Hm, that does look bad, doesn't it?_

_Ya think!_

_Okay, turn left._

I make a sharp left turn and brake into a run. I _have_ to find a way into the open again, out of these back-alleys.

_Right!_

Startled cries of anger and surprise burst out behind me as the gang discovers my fleetness of feet. Unfortunately, they see me turn right and the sound of their running echoes off the buildings behind me.

I pass two tiny intersections before she yells, _Left!_

My feet veer that way. My panting is sounding more and more like high-pitched sobs. A few drops of salty water run down my cheeks, but I can't tell if it's sweat or tears.

I run past another man in a green jacket and sunglasses.

_Oh, joy, _I think, _another one to chase me._

_Ano, right!_

I dash down another alley, dipping my head to wipe the water away, and running straight into a wall.

The gang of eight walks in behind me, standing shoulders to shoulder across the only exit. There's no room for Mr. Sunglasses, so he stays towards the back.

_Ok genius, _I think, _now what do you have to say?_

_Crap…._

_Crap? Yeah, deep crap! Why'd you tell me to go this way?_

_Seemed like a good idea at the time…_

The gang laughs spitefully and I belatedly remember Ami's warning:

"_This may seem a like the round-about way, but it'll keep you away from the bad side of town."_

"Well, well, well," says Mr. Chainshirt, on the right end. "Whadiya think we have here, Rex?"

The man with the Godzilla hair, to Middleman's right, sticks his tongue out, it's been cut down the middle to make it forked. He smiles and hisses at me.

"I dunno, Chains, how 'bout you, Bones?"

One person to Middleman's left, an insanely skinny boy in leather pants leans back. His cheeks are hollow and I can count each of his ribs. He grins, showing sharpened teeth.

"Looks like gohan, don't it Lard?"

Mr. Shinyhead laughs, to Rex's right, his fat rolls jiggling over the top of his torn jeans.

"Sure does! And I'm hungry! You up for some munchies, Bat?"

A dark-haired man with an inverted Mohawk slings and badly done tattoos of bats with bloody fangs slings a metal bat over his shoulder, almost hitting Bones in the head.

"Don't know, Lard. She looks kinda skinny. What type a eatin' diya think she'd make, Hentai?"

On the end next to Lard, a man in short jean cutoffs looks like he tried to put his hand in his pocket and missed, but has found something interesting anyways.

"I wus atahlly thinkin' uh suhmn' diffurt, Bat."

He laughs while staring at me with elevator eyes. I start shaking.

"Now, now boys," Middleman finally speaks, "Can't you see you're scaring the poor thing?"

He throws his arms over Rex and Bat, smiling with big block teeth at me, glancing around at his gang like he's sharing some private joke. They all laugh.

"Aw, c'mon Skull! Just one little bite!" shouts Lard.

"One little bite of yours and she'd be gone!" laughs Chains.

"Yeah! Thun I'd huve nuthin' tah cuddle wiff!" says Hentai, hugging himself.

"You always have Bones!" yells Rex in his hissing voice.

Bones glares. "I thought Bat was your—"

Bat begins pummeling Bones while the rest of them laugh. I lean against the grimy wall, knees shaking too hard to hold me up.

_Well, now wasn't that a nice little introduction. Now we know everyone's name but quiet Mr. Sunglasses._

My stomach is in too many knots to even consider answering her. I sink down to the ground, next to a stinking heap of garbage, making sure my skirt is curled around my legs. I don't like the way Hentai is looking at me…

"Boys, boys," Skull speaks up again, everyone quiets down to malicious snickers. Bat and Bones pick themselves up like nothing happened. "Enough fun, lets get down to business." He pulls out a kodachi from its sheath at his hip, flipping it from hand to hand. "Hey, girlie, you got any money for some gentleman?"

"Or are we gonna get all un-gentlemanly on ya?" says Chains, cracking his knuckles.

They laugh, advancing as one.

"Oi! I think I've heard of you guys."

A new voice speaks above their snickering. They all stop, turning their back towards me, looking at Mr. Sunglasses.

_Oh, deep…deep crap._

"Yeah, you're the Seven Skulls gang. You guys think you're tough, huh? Scaring a little girl then going to beat her up and Kami knows what else? Yup, that sounds like the regular cowards' tough-guy routine."

_Why didn't I recognize…_

"We're the Seven Skulls of Hell, baka," growls Bat.

_It's him._

Urameshi glances over the top of his sunglasses, a cocky grin tugging at his lips. "Nah, anything that came from Hell would be at least twice as strong as you. You just look like circus freaks."

They growl as one.

"What? Now you're dogs?"

Several curse at him. Skull holds up his hand. They all go silent, but none take their eyes off Urameshi.

"You lookin' for a fight?" Skull asks in a monotone.

"With who? I don't see anyone worth it here."

Rex hisses.

"But hey, I've had a shitty day. It might make me feel better to turn you all into a bloody pulp."

My stomach heaves at 'blood' but I choke it down.

"Go, Hentai," says Skull.

Hentai steps forward, still keeping one hand in his shorts. Urameshi eyes this, the cocky grin pulling wider.

"What, you trying to get it to grow?"

Hentai charges at him with a yell. Urameshi waits until he's almost upon him and kicks him in the crotch. Hentai squeals and crumples to the side.

"Whoops, did I hurt your twinkie? Well, I'll have to have my foot washed."

"Chains!" barks Skull.

Chains swings a chain and ball around like a lasso, whipping it towards Urameshi, who watches as it flies over his head, completing missing him.

"Gotcha!" Chains yells, jerking hard on his whip.

"You've got to be kidding me," Urameshi mutters, taking a few slow steps sideways.

The ball and chain fly back at their owner, crashing into his face and knocking him out.

Urameshi sighs.

Skulls growls and yells, "Lard, Bones!"

"Right!" They shout in unison.

Unfortunately—or, fortunately, from my point of view—Lard trips over Bones's ankle and belly flops on him. The sound it makes it pretty impressive, accompanied by several crunching noises from Bones's ribs.

"Oops…" says Lard as he peels himself off the ground, nudging Bones to one side.

"Bat," Skull murmurs, barely audible.

Bat streaks out, lightning fast, at Lard's head. The baseball bat clangs as it makes contact. Lard collapses to one side, blood seeping out of his head sluggishly.

Urameshi looses his cocky grin, quirks an eyebrow at Bat, but says nothing.

"Clumsy imbecile," Bat mutters.

Skull nods once, his cool restored.

"Rex, you know what to do."

Rex snakes toward Urameshi, sticking out his forked tongue and hissing at him.

Urameshi's hand darts out, grabbing Rex's tongue. Rex freezes, not even hissing. Urameshi doesn't waste time, aiming a quick punch to Rex's spiky Godzilla head. Holding him up by his ear, Urameshi wipes his fingers on Rex's shoulder before kicking him away.

"Damn," he says, staring at his finger in disgust. "Now I'll have to wash my hand, too."

He busies himself with wiping his digits on his jacket while Skull scowls and Bat remains emotionless.

Skull doesn't do anything, but Bat suddenly whips his metal bat at Urameshi's head while he's not looking. He doesn't have time to react.

_**No!**_

Somehow, Bat's bat stops, just for a second. Urameshi grabs it, his other hand immediately punching Bat's lights out.

"Guess that just leaves you and me," Urameshi says to Skull, tossing Bat into the wall.

Skull almost snarls, glaring at Bat.

"You're a dead man," he growls and _I_ almost die.

"That's right," Urameshi says with a grin.

I _really_ wish he hadn't said that.

Skull yells and charges. Urameshi blocks, kicks and Skull goes down.

_One move, _I think, burying my head with my arms, _he took them all out with one move._

Hands in his pockets, Urameshi picks his way through the groaning gang members, stopping casually in front of me. I'm shaking all over.

"Yo, kid."

I won't look at him.

"Kid, they hurt you?"

_What? He _**cares**

I stop quivering and shake my head with out picking it up. My whole body is numb.

I hear him sigh again.

"You're lost, aren't you?"

I nod. Urameshi sighs again and I glance up. He's looking away from me, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing the back of his neck. I quickly hide my face again as he looks back.

"You're wearing Sarayashiki uniform. You go there?"

I nod again.

"You know how to get home from there?"

A third nod.

"You gonna look at me?"

I shake my head, he sighs.

"I really don't have time for this," he mutters to himself. I hear him shuffling around, and he says "All right. Hop on."

I glance up through my bangs. Urameshi's turned around, kneeling in the grime of the alley. He has his hands behind him, open as if they're trying to catch something.

"C'mon, kid," he says, "I don't have all day."

Tentatively, I uncurl, placing one knee in each of his hands. I grip his shoulders as he stands up to keep my balance, resting my head on his back. He hops around the gang members, kicking Hentai in the face as he reaches out to grab him. Urameshi's stride is stronger than Ami's, with more bounce to it. He goes slowly, presumably to keep me from falling off. But a piggyback ride on him is cake compared to Ami. I almost chuckle at that.

_A dead man is giving me a piggyback ride._

**

* * *

**

I plunge my uniform up and down in the steamy bath water. Thinking quietly of the past two days as I work the mud and grime from them. _He _is asleep on the couch, recovering from the last of _his_ hangover. We're out of Advil, and I still need to swipe some big trash bags from the school. I hope no one noticed I was gone today. I know _he _won't notice the Advil until _his_ next booze binge.

But for now, I'm lost in the steamy bathroom, watching my clothes drift absentmindedly in the tub, resting my sore body in the scalding water.

_It's so…_I let the sentence trail.

_Soothing? Peaceful? Not painful?_ My other side purrs. She can be polite sometimes.

_Nice…_

_Of all the articulate words…_She starts to complain, but apparently the day's taken its toll on her, too._ That works pretty well._

I stare at the steam swirling above me. Words that shouldn't have interested me at all won't leave me alone. Ears ringing, stabbing knives, kitsune… healing powers.

_Crimson, like blood…_

**(No, not like blood, like that hair)**

A human in the demon's place, dragging him through my dream landscape, broken only by the girl flying above the city, softly singing in her pink kimono.

_Silent hate…_

**(Not going to think about him)**

Kuwabara and Urameshi showing up together, not beating each other up.

_Seeping disdain_…

**(I won't)**

The Seven Skulls Gang, they were creepy, Urameshi was scarier. (Not as bad as I thought he'd be.) But both are scarier than those stupid, arrogant, ugly, probing….

_His eyes…._

**(No!)**

"…_if proved a nuisance, they are easily disposed of." The little girl tugging her companion across the street, as if they were safe there. "Hn, at least one of these ningen recognizes its doom. Smart girl." Searching, searching… Fox found his own way back, never anything to worry about… They want to find the girl. "Baka ningens…" Irritation, grudging compliance… A flash of white, a purple glow. Purple eyes? No, no, red _eyes_, purple _eye_. Sensations flying across the city, homing in, the girl, mist… resistance, pitiful… Harder to get in, wheedling, pushing, the resistance falling…_

**(Stop!)**

A shiver runs down me despite the steaming water. Those eyes, the thoughts that accompanied them, they won't leave me alone!

I climb out of the tub hastily, pulling the plug and snatching my clothes from the forming whirlpool.

I won't allow myself even to _think _about him, I hardly allow myself to think at all. I focus only on what I'm doing. Keeping your focus dictated on only your actions is actually very hard.

Somehow, I hang my clothes on the shower to dry and manage to pull on my PJ's before staggering to my closet, stumbling over books and flopping into bed. I'm shaking as I pull the sheet around me. I don't even think of venturing out to steal one from beside the couch. I feel safe in my closet.

Covering my head with the sheet, gripping my tiny pillow, I shiver, trying to persuade myself to believe today never happened.

_It's a holiday. There was no school. I spent the day in bed, reading because I had no homework. _He _was out all day, boozing. I washed my uniform because I was bored. It's hanging in the bathroom. See all these bumps and bruises? I got them just walking around the house. I'm such a klutz. Now I'm going to sleep. I'm not afraid. There's nothing to be afraid of._

But that didn't explain my missing schoolbag or book….

…Or the dark pressure, pushing at the top of my head.

**(Space divider)**

"OI! SHRURINPUU!"

Ami runs up at breakneck speed.

"Ohayou, Satu! Wasn't that awesome yesterday? What'd you do? I was out running laps. I tried to check in on you, but you were gone."

I tensed, but continued walking towards the school. Hoping she wouldn't press the "What'd you do yesterday" question.

_Wait, she said yesterday was awesome… she ran laps? _

When Ami did laps, she ran around the city, normally all day. I cocked my head at her.

_What happened yesterday?_

Ami gives me a shocked look, but it mellows quickly into an airy surprise.

"Earth to the kawaii shurinpu, school was cancelled yesterday! Remember all the glass in the halls? They had to clean it all up. Obaa-chan tells me that they still don't have it all, so today will be mostly free time!"

Two hours later, I find that she was right. Mr. Iwamoto made us all pick up glass in his classroom, but the English teachers are making us clean up the library. Luckily, they already have new lights and most of the glass gone; we're just picking up the last splinters of it.

_Free time my butt, _my other side says as I crawl around on my hands and knees, tossing glass into a little bag. _This is slave labor._

Quietly, I agree. My hands are cut and oozing, but twitchy around all these books. There's a nice thick one, just at the very end. It's covered in old, red binding, and the pages are yellowed. It sits there quietly, seemingly emitting an irresistible hint of untold secrets within its jacket.

I can't help it, two-tenths of a second later, my glass bag has been ditched and the book is in my lap.

I stare at the cover and have an unnerving sense of being stared back at. It seems to whisper of mysteries beyond my knowing, enticing me, luring me in.

I touch the corner of the front cover; let my finger slide down to the middle of the pages. With a flick of the wrist, the book lies open before me. My eyes widen. A full-page picture done in an unrecognizable style adorns the right-hand page. In it, a woman is suspended, arms open, eyes closed, feet pressed together and toes pointed. Her lips are pursed slightly, poised as though she was about to speak. Her dark hair swirls around and over her head, as if caught in some powerful wind. The background is all swirls of bright red, orange and blue. I can almost hear the roar of a super-heated wind…. It radiates of densetsu.

I don't move.

I don't breathe.

Yet I hear a breath…

My head snaps up so fast it pops. Not even three feet from me, Urameshi stands frozen, bug-eyed and starring.

_Clap! _We both jump as my fingers slap the book shut and slam it back on the shelf as if of their own intent.

"Oi, uh, Shin…?"

I stand hurriedly, bob my head in a quick bow, turn to leave… and run straight into the bookshelf.

Urameshi stares. I grimace, feeling another goose egg developing.

_Okay, let's try that again._

I give another quick bow, this time darting to the right. My shoulder clips the edge of the bookshelf, spinning me around the other way and landing flat on my rump.

Urameshi's face bubbles up, one hand goes to clutch his stomach while the other extends until one finger points at me. I guess the natural reaction just couldn't restrain itself anymore.

I crawl away as Urameshi doubles up with his rambunctious laughter.**

* * *

**

As the hours of the school-day crawl by, the image of the woman in the picture is plastered to my brain. But I keep seeing Urameshi. In the halls, walking by my class, he even tried to sit by me at lunch. (Luckily, the bell rang just as he spotted me.) Kuwabara is nowhere around… and I can't help wondering what happened to him, he's not one to skip.

Keiko keeps shooting glances at Urameshi, carefully avoiding me. I ran into them (literally) between classes when they were coming down from the roof.

_Doesn't she remember?_

I've had the chills all day, but finally, I'm walking home and Urameshi is nowhere in sight. I even found my bag and book in the office.

"Shin!"

_Had to think it, didn't cha?_

I turn, spying Urameshi sprinting towards me.

"Shin! Oi, I've been trying to catch you alone all day! Listen, we need to talk…"

All my muscles tense and I take off in the opposite direction, pulling my bag to my chest.

_I have a dead man for a stalker! Dead stalker! Dead stalker! _My panicky thoughts flurry around me as I flee.

"Wait! Stop, Shin!"

I turn a corner and run smack into Ami, whose doing her afternoon jog. I land hard on my bottom, panting. My pleading eyes gaze up at her.

"Shin! Come…back."

Urameshi rounds the corner, stopping within feet to gawk uncertainly at us.

"Oi," Ami says, jerking her chin towards Urameshi, "This punk bothering you, Satu?"

"Huh? What? No! I just—"

I nod enthusiastically.

_Yes! Yes, yes!_

Ami's brow creases, she cocks her head and pops her knuckles. I back off, recognizing Ami's fighting stance.

"No sweat, Satu, I'll take care of 'im for ya."

A bead of sweat rolls down Urameshi's face.

"Uh, Ami…"

"Ito."

"Uh, right, Ito-senpai, can't we just talk about this?"

"No."

**

* * *

Well, Urameshi went home with a few more colors on him than before. Despite his reputation, Ami didn't have a scratch. She walked me back to my apartment, ordering me to always tell her if someone's bugging me. **

"Abayo!" She calls as I close the door.

_Oyasumi!_

Ami gives me that same, slightly surprised look. But then she just waves, shuts the door and leaves.

I hardly glance at _him,_ moaning over a sake bottle. Trotting straight to my room, puzzling over the day. The picture of the woman is still fresh and oddly familiar in my mind. At least there's one thing I can be certain of.

_Ami sure took care of my stalker problem!_

**

* * *

Glossary:**

Ano- Um…

Abayo- Casual good-bye

Asagohan- Breakfast (shortened to gohan)

Baka- Idiot

Densetsu Legend, Legendary

Kami- God

Kodachi - A Japanese dagger, similar to a Katana but smaller

Ohayou - Good morning. Full version is: Ohayou-gozaimasu

Oi- Hey!

Oyasumi - Good night. Full version: Oyasumi-nasai

**Senpai- **Used when referring to another student, club member, etc, who is your senior. Yusuke uses it while trying to sweet talk Ami, cause he's not supposed to use any powers (including super strength) against mortals without Koenma's permission. (And because Ami has a reputation to keep up too. .)

**I'm starting an e-mail thing for people who want to get e-mail updates on my stories. Whenever I have any news, or I update, I'll send you an e-mail about it. Just send me an e-mail at No payment necessary. And don't forget to watch my otaku site: www. myotaku. com/ users/ windfallen (underscore) star/**

You'll never believe what came when I was typing this! A nomination letter to go to Australia! If I go I'll be a US delegate and get to do a ton of stuff not even native Australians get to do! Squeeee! I wanna go! I have an interview scheduled for Saturday. I'll tell you more about it if I make it. Everybody wish me luck!

Chapter 5 Review Replies:

Insaneningen14: I'm glad you read it too! Now reply to this chapter, please?

Crazyloony598: Well, here it is! But o.O If you're as clumsy as Toki… I pity you, and it's not my fault! (why only on Sundays?) Thankies!

Dumbrat: Awwww, Thanks! hugs

Lady-of-the-Dragon-Flame: Thanks for the whole introduction thing. It kind of influenced this chapter. (eye twitches at the threat) Well I'm sorry you feel that way Lady Vaoh, have a mint! (Lady Vaoh eats it) Ha! You just consumed a week's worth of writer's block! Nyah!

WritingWoman: I LOVE THAT QUOTE! Sorry I haven't gotten around to reading that story yet, been insabely busy. Um, but one question. Who is Sabe and how did I get inside him?

Fruit is NOT a Dessert: That was actually the chapter I forgot to put them in… Um, you see, ya put yer story in the editor, put the cursor where you want the break and click the button that has the line on it. If you scroll over it, it says " (But you might have figured this out already)

ButterflyOnna77: I love your penname! Good use of imagery!

Iaragon: ;; Someone flamed Vixenous? Awww… (hands you flame retardant shield) There ya go! No more ugly flames for you! Besides, that's one of my top favorite stories on ff.n! (And I still consider you famous) Oh! You can put me on your story alert list to get updates on when my chapters come out, or I can e-mail you.

Baka Hanyou Rahvin: Really? Wow! I'm really glad that you can relate to my story like that. A klutzy Amazon… you should make a story about that!

Nijuukyuu: Here it is! Thankies!

Please review!


	7. Hiei, you did what?

**7 Hiei, you did _what!_**

Woohoo! I'm in! I'm going to Australia! (but not until summer) I'll also be going to Minnesota over New Years for a winter survival and dog-sledding course! I'm so happy! Ureshii!

Oh! (sheepish smile) It's been a while, you might wanna do some read reading of at least the last chapter if you haven't lately. That'd be best. But I marked it where I referenced to previous chapters, so you should be okay.

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Chapter 7: Hiei, you did _what!_

Kuwabara glanced up in alarm as the door slammed, announcing their team leader's arrival.

"Hey! I just replaced that! Be care—whoa, man, what happened to you?"

Yusuke didn't answer. He stormed through Kuwabara's living room, past Kurama, and threw himself into a chair. Kurama watched him cross his arms and put his nose in the air. Hiei spared a smirk and a single snicker from his position against the wall.

"I assume there were…complications, Yusuke?" Kurama said softly.

Yusuke glared back, well, as much as one can glare when their eyes are swelling shut.

"Ito Ami…"i Yusuke muttered past two bleeding lips. "Didn't know the jailbait had a bodyguard. Glad to see Kuwabara found your sorry ass."ii

Kurama raised an eyebrow. Kuwabara, trying desperately not to laugh, squeaked, "You got beat up by a girl? Ura-urameshi (snort, giggle) you're loosin' street cred!"

"It was Ito!" Yusuke yelled back, "The gym teacher's daughter! And you know I'm not supposed to fight back against someone with no offense! What the hell was I supposed to do?"

"Calm down, Yusuke," Kurama said, "Kuwabara, please control yourself."

Yusuke give a huff of exasperation while Kuwabara stifled his laughter.

"She saw it, didn't she?" Hiei spoke for the first time.

The last of Yusuke's anger disappeared from his bruised face. "Huh? Yeah, picked it up and everything. It flipped right open to Shin Sumi's page, too."iii

"Hn. So now what, fox?"

Kurama looked at the roll of bloodstained gauze in his hand. His blood obscured most of it, but a sensitive nose could pick out the scent of human's saliva. Why it'd been in her mouth, he didn't know.iv But he did know that she was short, brown hair and eyes, with a large bruise in the middle of her forehead. When he'd woken up, hours after the battle, he'd caught her putting on her shirt. Her ribs showed; she wasn't getting enough food.

"We continue interacting with Shin. She won't be near frightened if we approach her as every day people instead of mystery men who jump out from dark corners." Kurama decided, setting the gauze aside.

"Why's Koenma so interested in the brat, anyhow?" Yusuke muttered, accepting a first aid kit from Kuwabara.

"Her mother and father," Kurama started, "Had been two of the top psychics in the world, as well as good friends of Koenma and King Enma. They often did favors for Koenma. Mostly this meant disposing of demons that'd escaped into the living world. Their record is…was… quite fearsome. However, after defeating a demon with particularly high psychic energy, Shin Masa was cursed and Shin Sumi's memory was completely erased. Not long after, she killed herself, violently."v

The room was silent. Kurama even had Hiei's attention.

"In her suicide, she also injured Shin Toki, though not Masa. Toki was eight years old at the time. As far as we know, she hasn't spoken a word since then. She may be mute. Toki was sent to a country home for three days until her father won custody. During that time Masa swore off any alliance with Enma and Koenma." Kurama took a moment to re-adjust himself. "The next year, Masa married again to a woman named Moto Kaiya. They moved, their location has been unknown until just recently." Kurama glanced at the figure by the window.

Hiei'd done a search with his jagan. The Shin's apartment had been unprotected by everything but walls and a front door with a lock. Shin Toki, however, put up an interesting fight for one who'd never used her psychic powers before. Once he broke past her mother's barrier, Hiei'd had just enough time to get her name and location before she blocked and continued blocking him.

Hiei muttered something that sounded much like "pathetic fool…" before turning his head back to the window.

"Well I've had my history lesson for the day!" Kuwabara broke the mood, slapping his knees and standing. "I think I've got some Mac & Cheese in the kitchen, anybody up for some?"

"Me!" Said Yusuke, hobbling quickly out of the room.

"I'd better assist," Kurama added, following them at a more reasonable pace. He turned his head back, "Hiei?"

But he was already gone.

**

* * *

**

I was getting that creepy feeling again. Like someone just poured a dozen wriggling, slimy worms down your back. I turn over in my bed. There's an exciting tingle starting in my brow. The blanket feels scratchy and I just want to get out of bed. I scratch at the blouse of my P Js, pull the pants a little higher, trying to get comfortable.

_Well… maybe it's time to get up…_

I crack open an eye, but everything is still really dark. Grunting crankily, I flip over again, beat my pillow, and try to go back to sleep.

_Maybe I'm too hot. _

I kick down my blanket. That feels better. I flop around some more. I want to get up! Up!

_No! Nighttime! Sleeping! _

I shove my head under the pillow, thrashing my legs to knock the energy out of them. The excited, tingling feeling is still crawling across my forehead, yet my other voice is strangely silent. I listen hard for her, but all I can hear is a very quite buzz.

_That's strange. _I think, plopping my head on top of the pillow again. _She's always hassling me. Wonder what happened to her. _I shrug. _Not that I'm complaining._

I snuggle my face into the pillow. It feels suffocating. I whack it back into shape and lay my head on it. Oh great, now the tingling in my forehead as switched to the nape of my neck. My ears ring gently.

_There's **nothing** that's going to prevent me from going to sleep. Now, **go away**!_

The ringing increases. My eyes open against my will. I groan.

_Just to check the clock… Then I'm coming right back to bed!_

Silently, I pull myself out of my cot. Okay, so it was more like I fell out, knocked down a stack of books, stubbed all my toes on unknown objects, tripped on my school bag and ran into the wall. But other than that, I was _completely_ silent. Rubbing my nose, I crack open the door.

No one there….

I leave my door open, creeping down the hall. _His_ snoring can be heard from the small kitchen, he's knocked out by the small window. All the sake must've gotten to him.

_I wonder why we always have the shades drawn… _I think to myself for the first time.

I check the VCR and DVD players for the time (Yes they are actually accurate.) But the time they show can't be right.

_8:20? I only went to bed at eight…. I'll look outside, maybe I can see a clock from the walk._

Yes, I know, a ridiculous thought. But my mind is murky, hazy, like there's a song playing that I can't hear, but it's blotting out all my other thoughts. How stupid. Eh, I must be more tired than I thought.

I fumble with the lock. _He _gives an extra grunt. I keep fumbling with the door until it opens, releasing me into the cool night.

I stumble to the railing, catching the steely bar in my hands. We're on the third floor of five, on the very corner of the building. A cool breeze wafts down the corridor, compelling my short hair to drift towards the city lights that stretch out before me.

_There's something familiar about this... Like I've seen it before…From farther… higher away… _

My thoughts are long and drawn out. I can't concentrate. I almost want to sleep, right here…

Two very soft, very light steps go pat-pat behind me.

My eyes snap open, drowsiness gone.

_Run girl! Run! Wake your father! **Get away**!_

_What are you doing back?_

_Just **run**!_

I whip around. A flash of crimson eyes and black cloak are all see before something is wrapped tightly around my head and used to tie my hands behind my back as well.

I lash out with my legs, there's a muttered snicker, but no connection. I'm grabbed tightly from behind, the arm going under my elbow and across my middle. My feet spin wildly as I'm lifted from the floor.

_No! Let go! Let go! Let go!_

My eyes leak, I feel moisture against the—cloak?— that's binding me. I kick about, but the arm stays tightly clamped around my waist. Who's this jerk? Where's Ami when I really need her?

My other side is cursing bitterly, promising hell and more. The inside of my skull is actually starting to pound. But just as she was in another long string of profanities, she shuts-up abruptly.

A jolt goes through my attacker, as if he jumped. My heart drops and I loose my stomach when I feel him stop moving, as if we're not touching the ground anymore.

_A-a a suicide jumper! _

I try hard to scream—very, very hard. For the first time in years I try to say something, _anything_, but nothing comes out.

_No way! Put me down! DOWN! I WANT DOWN!_ I scream in my mind.

_Are you sure?_ Another being answers back.

I freeze at the other voice in my mind. It sounds familiar, guarded and mocking. Like that time my brain was invaded…. The cloth that was blinding me wrenches away, the knot tying my hands slips out.

I gasp.

I'm flying over the city, the night-lights flashing past us. I scramble for something to hold onto, finding only the shirt of my captor. My fear-crazed eyes find his garnet reds. It's that _**guy**!_ He was the one who invaded my mind!vi

He smirks. "Still want down?"

I shake my head wildly.

**

* * *

**

The door to Kuwabara's apartment banged open. The three boys looked up from their recently finished Mac & Cheese. They were recognizing the energy, but not the entrance. Loud wasn't Hiei's style.

"Get **off**." Something thumped on the living room floor. "Baka musume…"

The three exchanged wide-eyed glances across the table.

"He wouldn't actually…" Kuwabara stared at Kurama.

"Yabia," muttered Yusuke.

They all disentangled themselves from the table, hurrying to the living room.

Kuwabara rounded the corner first, and was promptly run into by a small girl. She fell back, landing hard and scrambling backwards. She did a sort of flopping, teetering crab-walk until she fell against Hiei. Said demon kicked her away and leaned against the wall, glaring out the window.

"Um, Hiei…?" Kurama let it trail as the girl cowered, and scooted backward, ran into the wall, and hid behind the couch.

"_You **kidnapped** her_?" Yusuke shouted.

Hiei glared daggers him. "You said we should interact more. So go on, interact!"

Yusuke and Kuwabara's jaws dropped. Timidly, Kuwabara tip-toed over to the couch.

Hiei eyed them with scornful interest, "But I must say, you're not making such a good impression."

The room felt tense, more so than normal. It was almost like the second before Yusuke fried a rei gun.

POP!

Everyone jumped. Hiei blinked suddenly, scowled and cursed. He plunged his hand straight through the couch. Shish-ka-bobbing the cushion.

"Oi! Hiei! That's my couch! _What are you doing?_" Kuwabara yelled

Hiei snatched something from beneath the couch. A small breeze publicized his departure.

Kuwabara stared at the open door, which had been slammed close, sighed and shook his head. He peeped behind the couch. "Shin? Shin Toki? Is that you? It's Kuwabara Kazuma from school…" He pulled the couch away from the wall. "Oh don't tell me you crawled under it…." He muttered, getting on his hands and knees to glance under. He frowned and stuck his entire head under the couch. "What the…!" a muted shout came, followed by a muffled curse as he hit his head.

Yusuke backed quickly out of the way as the couch was capsized. A blouse and pajama pants are lying on the floor.

"Hey!" Kuwabara shouted, "She's gone!"

**

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**

_What the crap?_

Okay, status check. I'm about fifty feet in the air, _naked_, and falling _very_ quickly towards the ground.

The air whips past me, I'm flailing in every possible direction and facing up. All I can hear is wind. I'm falling, falling, and there's no one who can save me.

Suddenly, I'm tackled from the side. Who ever grabbed me slides along the ground, I have no idea how they caught me. My savior grunts heavily.

_I'm naked! _I remember, sitting up and running away. But then I freeze. _No freaking way…_

It's that house, _home_, the place of my dreams, where I nursed the demon-human Kur-Shuichi. vii

_How the heck did I get here?_

Something is pulled over my head. I open my mouth in a silent scream, but my head pops out an opening. Surprised, I wiggle around a bit and find I'm wearing some kind of cloak that falls all the way to the ground.

"You transported."

I jump, fall on my butt and try to get away. Standing over me is-is that … _Hiei _person from before. He rolls his eyes.

"Baka musume… You only transported yourself, _not_ your clothes."

He throws my PJ's at me. I latch onto them and start running. BAM!

_What the… How you get there!_

I stare up at Hiei, who is in front of me again.

"It's calling running. You don't seem to be very good at it."

I pick myself up and glare at him. _Okay, let's get this straight. I _transported_ here, at least five miles away from where I was _kidnapped_, I'm wearing your _cape_ and you're reading my** mind**!_

He glares back, chills run down my spine. _No, you're the one sending telepathic messages!_

_I can't do anything like that._

He gives me a blank look and mutters something under his breath.

_I am not an idiot!_

Suddenly, I find myself hanging by Hiei's fist, which is oh-so-calmly wrapped around my throat. This guy is _fast_!

"Here's what you're going to do. You're going to take off _my_ cloak, put on _your_ clothes, and then we're going back to the buffoon's house to _clarify_ some things. Can your stupid ningen brain under stand that?"

I nod meekly. He drops me to the ground in a crumpled heap. I suck in air.

"Hn," he says, glowering at me. "Don't even try to run, not that you can humiliate yourself much more."

I scowl at him, but I keep my mind carefully blank.

"**Not here you stupid ningen!"**

I let the cloak drop back over me.

_Well where do you **expect** me to change?_

There's the slightest dusting of pick over his face, but maybe that's just the moonlight.

He turns sharply away from me. "Kamawan…!" he mutters. "Behind a bush or something. Baka musume…"

I stick my tongue out at him, wandering away to a thick shrub nearby.

"Immature little brat…" Hiei grumbles from the dirt road.

* * *

**Glossary**

Arigato-gozaimasu—Thank you very much!

Baka—Idiot

Kamawan—I don't care

Musume—Little girl

Ningen—Human

Oi—Hey!

Rei—Spirit

Ureshii—Yay/I'm so happy!

Yabia—Uh-oh

Yatta—I did it/hooray!

Things to pick up on

i This refers to when Yusuke was beat up by Ami in Chapter 6 because he was "stalking" Toki

ii In chapter 5, Kuwabara and Yusuke were looking everywhere for Kurama who was lost after some mysterious battle that I have yet to explain. BUT it does have something to do with the thunderstorms and Mrs. Ito. (wink wink)

iii Yusuke and Hiei are referring to a book they planted in the school library to try and find Sumi and Masa's heir (Chap 5)

iv The gauze is the same roll that fell in Toki's mouth while she was looking for Advil for Masa (Chap 1) And what she mysteriously found in her skirt pocket after calling to it. (Chap 4)

v A longer version of this from Toki's POV can be found in my one-shot, Independence Day

vi When Hiei was looking for her for the Tantei (Chap 6)

viiSee chapters 4-5

Yes soooo sorry for being gone for so long, Algebra is killing me…. Next one will be better. (I don't know why the roman numeral thingies messed up... I'll do something else next time.)

What really kept me going was that I kept getting reviews, even when I wasn't updating! (Ureshii!) Thanks to all ye faithful!

I should have the next one up soon. Drop a comment on your way out please, it's my only way to know that people still enjoy reading my story.

Arigato-gozaimasu!


	8. Surprising Discoveries

Okay! First update after coming back from the great white north! And boy, have I been waiting for it! Thanks to everyone for staying with me! Especially, Icefire2,ficfan3484, and animelover149 who've all been with me since--almost--the very firstday I posted. (Lol, Lord knows how long ago _that_ was!)

You can read about what I was up to over XMAS and New Years' at But for now, let's get on with the story!

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**8 Surprising Discoveries**

After barfing into Kuwabara's toilet for the third time since arriving, I wipe my mouth and flush, only to hurriedly boost myself onto the counter and retch into the sink.

_Are you about done in there?_

My stomach muscles clench suddenly and I give another dry heave. Must've run out of fuel (finally).

Gasping for air, I reply _Not that you care or anything, but some of us aren't used to flying through the air at a gazillion miles an hour while being whipped back and forth by a KIDNAPPER!_

…_Weakling,_

He severs the mental link and leaves me to rinse my puke out of the sink. That-that, _Hiei _personran, leaped and just about flew us back to Kuwabara's apartment in less than five minutes, carrying me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes all the way. Unfortunately, my stomach was left behind on the very first leap and was just catching up to me. And _now _he has the _nerve_ to ask me if I'm done puking because _he_ flung me around like a rag doll!

_That, that, idiotic… speed-crazed… arrrghh!_

Okay, so I'm no good at insults. That comes from my other side, which has been strangely quiet recently.

_Hello? Where are you?_

…

_That's weird…well, I'm not complaining._

I wash my hand and face, bracing myself to face the group of people in the living room, not the least of which is Kur-Shuichi.

The door creaks as I open it. The group in the living room goes silent. I tip-toe out to them.

_Do they **have** to stare at me like that?_

Kuwabara and Urameshi were frozen mid-arm wrestle, looking dumbstruck. (Not that it was an unusual appearance for them.) Hiei's eyes bore into me, a slight smirk on his face. Kur-Shuichi sits poised on the couch, next to Urameshi and Kuwabara, waiting patiently.

I'm not used to people even _seeing_ me. Having the room do quiet and their undivided attention is downright _scary_. Blushing furiously, I drop quickly in a recliner that faced the couch. Yusuke and Kuwabara's eyes go wide.

"Don't—" Kuwabara starts.

Too late.

The footrest slams up at the same time the backrest goes down, and I find myself clinging to the headrest, parallel to the ground. Yusuke and Kuwabara dive to either side. The backrest catapults back up, flinging me through the air.

_Ahhhhhhh!_

I fly straight towards Kur-Shuichi's head. Faster than I can see, his hands grab my arms just below the shoulders. My spine pops once as my speed drops to zero and my knees bump against his abbs. Our faces are inches apart.

If I blush any harder my face will explode.

"Freeze!"

I jump. Kur-Shuichi's eyes flick from me to Urameshi.

"Hold it right there! We gotta measure this out!"

The blurry edge of a measuring tape appears on my nose. Out the corner of my eye I see Urameshi run it back to the recliner as Kuwabara resets it. Muttering among themselves, "Sweet." "Did you see how far she flew?" "That was so awesome." "We just need to adjust…"

Suddenly, the front door opens and it's their turn to freeze.

A woman with mid-length sable hair walks in with a bag of groceries. She re-locks the door, takes off her shoes, and scans the room quietly. We all stare at her, wide-eyed. She strolls through the living room and out of sight into the kitchen. Heads swivel after her.

"Kazuma!"

Kuwabara jumps. "Uh, y-yeah?"

"Gummy bears on the counter, milk in the frig, zucchinis in the drawer. _Don't_ make missiles out of them."

"Huh? Oh, got it Sis."

"And stop torturing that little girl. She's scared enough already."

"We weren't…"

"Kazuma!"

He dips his head. "Got it, Sis."

"I'm going to bed."

Her footsteps taps quietly back to the bedrooms. A door opens, closes, and it's quiet again.

Meanwhile, Hiei is examining the recliner.

"What is _this_?" he sneers.

Urameshi grins broadly. "A trap. Without all the missions, Kuwabara and I have been trying to prank Shizuru, but she keeps sensing them and sooner or later we end up tripping traps we forgot were there."

"Like the zucchini missiles," Kuwabara adds.

Kur-Shuichi releases me, keeping a careful eye on me as I scramble to a far corner, trying not to tremble. He clears his throat.

"As interesting as the physics of vegetable projectiles are," he gestures toward where I've pressed myself as far as possible into the corner, "I believe it will have to wait."

Urameshi and Kuwabara exchange uncomfortable glances. By unspoken consent, they both put out a fist and bounce them three times. On the third bounce, Urameshi's fist opens flat while Kuwabara sticks out his first two fingers. Kuwabara grins, Urameshi grimaces.

I scowl. _Oh, now that was cold._

They jump. Kur-Shuichi and Hiei flick their eyes at me.

_You have to play jaken to decide who has to talk to me! _

Kur-Shuichi, Urameshi and Kuwabara exchange puzzled glances.

"Ningen, if you were strong enough to communicate your whole thought and not just fragments, it might make your already addle-brained message easier to understand without having to piece it together," Hiei says.

Oh, what I would give to hurt him….

_Well**, excuse me** if I only **learned** that I could send **tel-e-path-ic** **messages** less than an **hour ago**!_

Only Hiei doesn't wince with the force I put into the message.

"Clearer, not louder, Shin Toki." Kur-Shuichi chides gently.

I shrink a little, and try again. _Sorry, is this better?_

He grants me a small smile, "Much, domo."

His eyes seem to be an even deeper green than when we first met. Their emerald depths seem to rotate slowly, drawing me in. I feel a little dizzy as I smile back. For no reason at all, I feel like giggling.

Hiei strides past me. His movement shocks me back into reality as he leans against the wall and stares moodily out the window. The only thing to escape his lips is a grunt that sounds a lot like, "Hn."

I scramble away from him and tentatively examine a different chair for any traps. Finding none visible, I sit. Urameshi and Kuwabara throw themselves back onto the couch.

"So, uh, let's start with names," says Urameshi, uncomfortable with the silence, "I'm Urameshi Yusuke, you can call me Yusuke. I'm the leader of our little Reiki Tantei—"

_You died._

He stops mid-sentence. Kur-Shuichi and the others seem suddenly more interested.

"How," Yusuke's brown eyes search me carefully, "did you know that?"

_I saw you save that boy when the car hit you. And I-I was at your wake._ I didn't know people could stutter in telepathic messages. _I think, I think I saw your spirit there. You were floating in the sky with a girl… a guide of some sort?_

I even have Hiei's full attention now. I shift uncomfortably under all their eyes. Yusuke opens his mouth.

_I was standing in the shadows, _I anticipate his next question. _I don't think you saw me._

Out of they blue, I remember what I prayed for him: _May you come back better than you were before._ My face contorts in a lop-sided grin. _This wasn't quite what I had in mind._

"That wasn't what I was going to ask," he says carefully. "What you've said so far is right, but anybody at school with an active imagination could've told me that. How do I know you're not making this up?"

I scowl, irritated I retort, _One, how many people from school can communicate with you psychically? Two, Keiko and Kuwabara **both** cried for you. _

Kuwabara glances around to make sure this hasn't endangered his manly pride. I try not to smirk and ignore him.

_Three, the girl…_

My gaze goes hazy as I recall the memory. I realize that I didn't _see_ Urameshi. I saw a white-blue cylinder next to a bubble-gum pink orb. They looked crystalline, and seemed to emit light. I frown at the memory. The shape didn't look anything like Yusuke, the orb nothing like a girl. But they **_felt_** like Yusuke and the girl.

_I didn't actually see you or the guide in the sky. _I'm sure my face looks troubled. My lead evidence is slipping away. I concentrate hard on it. A piece of information I hadn't noticed before suddenly strikes me. _Matte, the girl, was her name, _it slips behind a veil in my mind, _oh, something like, Botoon? Botan! It was Botan! Right?_

They seem startled. I know I got it right. Pride swells in me.

"Y-yes," states Yusuke, "That's her."

I nod enthusiastically. _I had a dream about her once. It was a while back, when I was with Kur-Shuichi in that house._ I try not to blush. _Only this time I could actually see her. She was flying over the house on a wooden oar .I think she was looking for him. She said, um, thought, that she'd send out "the boys" tomorrow. You guys are "the boys" right?_

They exchange glances, nod.

"One question," says Kur-Shuichi, "who is this 'Kur-Shuichi?"

I frown a little in surprise. _It's you, who else?_

Yusuke and Kuwabara have that dumbstruck look again. Kur-Shuichi looks uncomfortable.

"Did I tell you that?"

_Yes._

"I believe I must have been confused. My name is just Shuichi," he says, seeming relieved.

_Oh. Hey, um, this is going to sound absurd but, no more absurd than me speaking with my mind, _I think to myself, _Would any of you know anything about a youkai in kind of that area?_

He room goes tense. Yusuke and Kuwabara peek at Shuichi, who gives them a warning glance before flicking his eyes to Hiei, then back to me.

_I thought you said she wouldn't remember that. _The mental voice sounded like Hiei, but much quieter, and it wasn't directed at me.

_She shouldn't._ The message came from Shuichi, but sounded nothing like him. It was older, darker….

An exact fit for the youkai's voice.

I gasp, my eyes almost popping out of the sockets. I lean back so fast I tip my chair over. I try to run, but my foot is tangled in the legs of the chair.

Someone grabs my wrist and twists it behind my back, almost pulling my feet off the ground. It's Hiei. His hot breath sears down the back of my neck.

"That was not for your ears, baka musume," he snarls, pulling my hand higher up my back.

I flail wildly, bombarding him with my fear as though it were a physical thing. It has no effect on him.

Tears spring to the corners of my eyes. _I-I thought t-the youkai was a dream! They ar-aren't real! _

Suddenly, I gasp.

Yusuke and Kuwabara are on their feet. Yusuke is pointing at Hiei and I, a dot of blue light at the tip of his finger. Kuwabara stands sideways, a beam of crackling orange light clasped in his right hand. Their eyes dart from me to Hiei, unsure of whom to attack.

Shuichi still sits on the couch, one leg over the other, hands clasped around his knee, eyes calculating. "Every one, calm down. Hiei, release her," he says, a hard note creeping into his voice.

Yusuke and Kuwabara back down warily. Their lights blink out. The figure behind me gives that "hn" like grunt again and appears by the window before my arm can even relax back to normal.

I inhale shakily between my teeth, letting the breath hiss back through them while I rub the bruise that's forming a ring around my wrist. I glare up at the four men around me. It occurs to me how much trouble I could be in.

"Now, Shin," Shuichi says, and I think longingly of Mrs. Ito, "We realize that this must be very strange to you. I don't mean to frighten you, but you've shown advanced physic abilities and you," he paused. Thoughts flashed across his eyes like sparrows. "Need to be protected. Many of the gifts you've shown us could terrify ordinary people."

_Ordinary… _I thought. The word echoed with a sort of no-turning-back-now-ness that I didn't understand.

Shuichi eyes flash as if he'd heard my thought. "Not that you aren't human, Shin, quite the contrary. Your talents just need to be… supervised."

_He must be right. I can't do this on my own,_ I think pleasantly, bobbing my head, although something deep within me rebells.

Shuichi smiles back. "I'm glad you agree. You'll be seeing a lot more of us now. We'll help you discover more of your powers and master what you already know. Please don't be afraid."

I smile wide and shake my head. _I won't._

Hiei shoots a glare at Shuichi, who acknowledges it with a slight twitch of his mouth.

"There is one thing that has to happen first, though," his encouraging smile seems a bit strained.

"Stop babying her, f-" Hiei snaps, cutting his sentence short. He scowls, turns to face me. His eyes bore into me. I try not to shake. "I have to place restraints on your mind to prevent you from using your powers stupidly."

I have just enough time for a confused look before his mind attacks mine. It feels like my entire consciousness has been seized in the jaws of some huge monsuta, a giant black dragon. It's fangs sink into my awareness.

Dimly, I feel my physical body writhe, mouth open in a silent scream. I fall from the chair and thrash around the floor. Hands hold me down, voices I don't understand are yelling.

The dragon hears them too, but he could care less. His giant tongue coils around my abdomen, constricting until I can't breathe. I'm feeling so many things. Hate, rage, anguish, panic, terror, they all file out of me in a wrenching mental scream.

I feel someone pick up my physical body; it sags lifelessly in their arms.

The voices go silent, or can I just not hear them?

My scream blasts down the gaping maw before me. I hear the message in it: "_Reikon za Sokutatsu!" _

The dragon flinches, leans and falls heavily to his side. I'm still clamped in his jaws. I feel his pain, his anger. But something clicks under his tongue. His emotions withdraw from me. He becomes unreadable. I lie limply as his tongue unravels and he drops me to the ground, to my own mind.

I clench my eyes shut, panting. I feel around my stomach at the thick leather belt that has been placed there. Cinched tight, it binds all of my newly discovered physic abilities. My fingers touch the buckle and I'm jolted painfully back to my physical self.

My real fingers spastically grip black material. Someone has their arms wrapped around my legs, my arms draped over their shoulders. My eyelids can only make it to half-mast. I stare at blurry city lights coming closer, closer, a building. Thump, a soft jolt goes through the legs that carry me. A window squeals in protest as it's opened. We drop through it. Things distort and go foggy. The next thing I see is Hiei, face guarded. He places one finger on my forehead.

The world goes dark.

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Domo Arigato Gozaimasu to all of you! Review, please! Check me otaku thingie. Love ya!

Glossary:

Baka- Idiot

Domo- Thank you

Domo Arigato Gozaimasu- Thank you very much!

Matte- Wait

Monsuta- Monster

Musume- Girl (I was told this meant daughter, but in the Ruroni Kenshin manga, Saito calls Kaoru a "tankana mesume" which they translate as "raccoon girl". So um, yeah, there's my reasoning…)

Reiki Tantei- Spirit Detectives

Reikon za Sokutatsu!- Express the soul

Tankana- how I think the Japanese word for raccoon is spelt… can't remember exact spelling…


	9. The Early Bird had it Better

(Crawls in meekly)

Okay, I SWEAR this chapter would have been up sooner. But my computer kept DELETING whatever I'd done, but kept it as it was _before_ I'd saved. A truly infuriating process, I assure you. Needless, to say, this chapter got changed up quite a bit before it reached this stage, but I think it's better for it.

WARNING: Because my compy is irritating, a bit of my fury expresses itself in this chapter through some violet swearing, almost abuse, and a fight scene. Don't try at home, kids!

Our lovely Seven Skulls of Hell give another appearance in this chapter. Descriptions of them all can be found at http/ now that I'm done ranting…

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Chapter 9

**The Early Bird had it Better / Those Who Wake Late Shall Pay**

_Uhhhhg, my head…._

I sit up in my cot, and quickly lay right back down as my noggin throbs. I clutch at my hair, grinding my teeth until the pain subsides. Something feels different, like I have a really heavy blanket wrapped around my head.

I open my eyes. The room even looks different, as if something that's always been there is missing.

I stand up cautiously. My head doesn't hurt at all, now. I stare at all the things in my little room, the stacks of books, the sheet crumpled at the end of the cot, the miscellaneous clothing strewn about, it's like I'm seeing it all for the first time.

It's quiet, too. A quiet unlike anything I've ever experienced in my life is all around me. I tap the small nightstand next to the bed, listening carefully to the hollow _tump _sound it makes.

_Well, at least I'm not going deaf…_

I sense a twinge of apprehension, as if I'm about to be insulted, but nothing happens. I glance around, feeling strangely lonely.

_Well, it's not like I miss that stuck-up, bossy little…little… err…_

I glance around my room for help with my insult, reading the first title I come to.

_Stuck-up bossy little elephant in a pink tutu! Huh! What the…_

Frowning I pull the book out from the middle of the stack. The whole thing comes crashing down, tipping over another stack, which bumps another, and sets off a lovely chain reaction, sending lovely hard-backs and sharp corners tumbling down on my poor feet.

_Ach! Itai! Itai! _

I hop up on my cot to avoid the avalanche of literature. There's a horrible ripping as the canvas splits straight down the middle and dumps me on the floor. Dumbfounded, I gaze up at the underside of my cot. I can almost hear a dim echo of _smart one_… but that's just me. My other half is nowhere to be heard from. Something's stabbing me in the back. I twist around and pull out _Elephants in Pink Tutus._

_Now where in the world did I get this?_

I roll over, bang my head on the wooden cot frame, and stand up. I give the book one last confused glance and set it on my nightstand. I study my little roman numerals clock; the hands hover over VII and XI.

_Holey rusted metal, Batman! I'm late!_

I rush around, scrambling into various pieces of my uniform as I find them. The only thing I can't find is my left sock.

_When it's not one it's the other, _I mutter mentally, trying to ignore how the words seem oddly blank.

_Gosh darn it! I'm already late! Oli-oli-oxen-free!_

I looked around, expecting to see it or suddenly remember where it is. But nothing happens. I wait.

And wait…

…

…still waiting…

_Dang it! _I make a frustrated motion with my arms, only to nudge the last standing stack of books so they tumble in a lovely, arcing cascade that plummets down, down, down to my poor tootsies, vaulting off them as rays of sunshine off a flower. Oh, how beautiful NOT! Dang things **hurt**!

_No time, no time, no time!_

Abandoning the sock, I grab my bag and dash into the door… open it…. and run out. I'm too late for breakfast, so it's straight around the corner, out the door and off to school.

Oh, how I wish my life was that simple.

I trip on a beer can, bash into the wall, and tumble the opposite way to collide with the couch. The jolt wakes _him._

_He_ grunts and pulls his head up. Stares at me blearily for a second, and begins to _scream._

"**WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU _DONE!_ WHERE IS IT! WHERE THE HELL IS IT!" **

_He _wrenches himself up from the couch. I scramble backwards; he pursues in heavy, staggering steps.

He's_ mad. How'd I make _him_ mad? What'd I do? I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_

"**WHAT HAPPENED!" **_He_ yells.** "WHO WAS IT! TELL ME WHO IT WAS, DAMMIT!"**

I find myself cornered between the wall and the bar. I try to stand but hit my head on the over-hanging counter. A massive hand gropes around for me. I press myself into the corner, shaking hard.

"**WHO THE HELL PUT THAT ON YOU?"** _His_ arm catches on an overhanging nail. It bleeds. **"DAMN IT ALL!"**

_Just go away… go away… _a silent sob escapes me_. Please! Just leave me alone!_

"**GET OUT HERE, TOKI! I SAID COME _OUT_, DAMMIT!"**

I crawl out and _his_ massive hands clench around my upper arms. I open my mouth, wincing in pain as _he_ plucks me from the ground and raises me to eye-level.

"**WHICH LITTLE TEMEE WAS IT!" **_He _shakes me. **"WAS IT ENMA! KOENMA! DAMMIT, TOKI, WHO THE HELL** **WAS IT!"**

_Yamero!_

Tears roll down my face, wheezing and hissing passes through my useless throat as I sob. _His_ eyes, blazing with hatred, burn into my flesh. I turn my teary gaze to the walls, the ceiling, the floor, anywhere but at _him_. I catch sight of my wrist below my sleeve; there're four dark bruises on it, one wrapped all the way around. Confused, I bring it closer to my face. _He _ogles it.

"**THEY _HURT_ YOU! HOW DARE THEY TOUCH YOU?"**

Snatching my wrist in one hand, the other tightens to hold me up. I struggle limply as _he_ examines my arm.

"These are finger marks," _he_ whispers fiercely, "Did they hurt you anywhere else? That kono yogore… who was it, Toki?" I look _him_ in the face. A raging passion swirls in his eyes, but _he_ is sincere.

_I don't know. _I think, shaking my head, _I don't remember getting that bruise. I don't know how it got there._

"**DAMMIT, TOKI! WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU _TELL _ME!"**

_He _throws me to the floor in a crumpled heap. The air rushes from my lungs. Coughing, I lean back and swipe the tears from my eyes, staring miserably at the underside of the bar.

"I'll get them… no one hurts my baby… I'll **kill** them." _He _mutters, storming from the room. He overturning the couch on his way, it crashes to the floorboards. The door slams. I'm left alone.

Shaking still, but only sniffling, I begin to crawl out from under the bar again.

_Kwonnk-kwonk-kwonk._

Something's wobbling above me….

_Kwonk-kwonk-kwonnnn…_

Pain explodes at the top of my head. I hear glass breaking, smell alcohol. Black dots swim in my vision. Why is my head wet? My eyes roll back, close, and I know no more.

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I'm sooo seriously tempted to cut it here… but you guys deserve more than that after so long, right? ****

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_Uhhhhg, my head…._

I sit up, and quickly lay right back down as my noggin throbs. I clutch at my hair, grinding my teeth until the pain subsides. Gee, this seems familiar. My hair is matted and sticky. What happened there? My hand comes away with dark, red ooze on it. It smells awful.

_O, ye poor and battered carpet! Please forgive me!_

I throw-up.

_Uck, I hate blood…_ I heave a second time, _uhhhg…hate puking_.

I try to spit into the corner, but it gets stuck on my lip and I end up rubbing my face on the carpet, _definitely_ worse than puking. I look to the left and see a shattered beer bottle. Fresh booze soaks the floor. That must be what smells so bad, but how'd I even get here?

Dumbfounded, I glance around.

_Okaaaaaay, I'm on the floor, in my uniform (minus one sock) smelling like alcohol… What happened? _

My arms ache. I slip off my shirt, jumping to see swelling bruises on my upper arms. But the darkest bruise is around my wrist.

_Ach, he must have come home in a drunken brawl,_ I think as a slip my shirt back on. _As if I don't have enough bruises already. Strange that I don't remember, must have been that beer bottle to the head._

Something goes _click-click_. I glance to my right. The doorknob is turning slowly, back and forth.

He _shouldn't be back until at least tomorrow, _I think, perplexed, remembering the last time he went into a drunken rage._ And _he's _never this quiet coming in…_

There's another slow, shuffling _click _as the dead-bolt turns. A muffled "Got it," is whispered. The knob turns again. I gasp, staring in horror at our door, as it swings open.

_What the heck!_

I stand quickly, dashing across the living room to shut it. As I meet the open doorway, I come face to face with a man. No shirt, lots of tattoos, and an inverted Mohawk. My eyes go wide, his narrow.

I slam the door shut just as an aluminum bat darts between it and the frame. I scream mentally and body slam the door, pushing against it with all my weight, praying it will shut.

The bat changes angle. It shoves hard against the door, knocking me down and crashing against the wall behind it. A bottle breaks under my back.

"Well, well, well…" The figure poses in the doorway, bat over the shoulder, hand on hip, and feet spread wide. "If it ain't our little ko musume from the back allies."

Bat smirks. Rex and Chains sneer from one side, Lard, Hentai, and Bones from the other. They all file inside in the same order, and Skull takes up the center. He smiles in a way that might be charming—at least it would be if I weren't terrified out of my wits.

Once again, I find myself on the floor in front of the gang, but this time, there's no Mr. Sunglasses in the back to save me.

"Ko musume! We all missed cha! What with you running away with that other guy so quick, one might assume you didn't like us or something!"

They laugh. I shake on the floor.

_Tasukete Kure!_

"I know!" Exclaims Skull, "You never wanted to go with that mean old man. You wanted to come with us all along!" The gang nods sagely. "Don't worry your pretty little head. We'll help you!" Skull grins like it's his birthday. "Bones, you keep watch. Rex, go ahead and toss ko musume in a spare bag. She'll fit. Everybody else, you know the routine! Everything goes in the sacks!"

_Guess it's more like Christmas…_

They start to move. I back away from Godzilla hair. He wags his split tongue at me.

"Excuse **me**" declares a female voice.

The gang freezes. Skull frowns suddenly.

"Hel-_lo!_ Are you _deaf?_" Demands the voice from behind them.

Skull turns slowly. They gang pulls back to either side of him and I catch sight of golden-haired, sapphire-eyed Ami with her most hostile glare. Suddenly, I think I know what angels look like.

"Okay" she says, "Who wants to be beaten into a bloody pulp first?"

Then again, maybe she's more like a demon….

Skull smiles again. "Oi, bijin! You had us spooked there. Why don't you come join our little tea-party?"

"I think you should still be afraid," Ami spies me on the floor behind them. "Satu! Daiouka!"

I nod my bloody, booze covered, puke-lipped head. Ami gives me the narrow eyed "I'm-so-gunna-kill-you-right-after-I-beat-these-guys-to-a-bloody-pulp" look.

"I don't think you understand," Skull says, unsheathing his kodachi and flipping it around a finger in lazy circles. "I think you should come in."

Ami glares, and swiftly kicks his elbow. Making the naked blade fly though the air and everyone duck. It lodges itself in the couch. Skull makes a sound halfway between a gasp and a squeak, running to retrieve it.

"Heh, heh, heh," Bones laughs cheekily, crossing his stick arms across his ribcage. "Yeah, come on in little bijin. Unless you wanna fight."

_Not _a smart thing to say to Ami.

Ami's eyes snap to Bones. Sparks fly. "You wanna go? Okay, let's go, baby! Momma's gonna get you a can of butt-whup!" Bones's eyes go wide. He backs into Lard. Ami pummels him with her fists, then whacks him with a double karate-chop to either side of his neck.

"Whose your Momma!" Ami shouts as Bones cries out and drops to the floor and scoots to one side, rubbing his neck vigorously. She eyes Lard. "Woo, boy, your Momma feed you too many jelly-rolls!"

I ogle Ami. _Wow, she's ticked, _I muse to myself, _I haven't heard her gansta voice in quite a while._

Ami moves her fury to Lard. She throws punch after punch into his belly. Lard puts his hands on his hips, laughing like Santa Claus while his fat does its best impression of a headbanger. _Whack! _Ami delivers a kick to his gut that makes him stumble backwards. She means business now. Without putting her foot down, she hops forward and catches him in the chin with her heel. In the midst of a bang I'm sure will break the floor he goes down.

"Satu! Call 911!" She shouts to me as she goes after Chains.

I sit there, stunned, thinking, _But we don't have a phone!_

Meanwhile, Ami starts up trying to intimidate chains while the rest look on. She bounces up and down like a boxer, letting her head sway back and forth.

"You wanna go punk, huh? Huh? Well let's go then! Let's go to Taco Bell! Let's get a crunchy DEAD-MEAT wrap!" She punches right at his chest, cursing and drawing back as her hand hits the chains. Chains takes a swipe at her, her ducks easily. But while her head is low, he brings his knee up and elbow down.

Ami hits the floor, coughing cursing explosively. The gang laughs. Bones and Lard are staggering to their feet. Wait, where's Rex go?

Ami picks herself off the floor, glaring at Chain's armor. "Hiretsukan…" she mutters, eyeing the chains and wiping the blood from her chin.

Suddenly, I notice something. The gang has formed a circle around Ami and Chains, blocking all escape. But _where is Rex?_

Ami must have realized this, too. She picks up a foot and strikes out while pivoting quickly. This little trick manages to catch most of the in the jaw, but sweeps right over Bones's head. They back off a little. Chains catches her foot. "Shitsukoi," he sneers.

Between Bat and Skull, Ami spots me. Her eyes widen. _"Satu,"_ she shouts, _"Nigero!"_ And my world goes dark. I'm lifted off the ground and my head whacks against the floor. I glimpse daylight, just as the bag is tied close.

"Aha!" I hear Rex shout. "Gotcha, ko musume!" He swings the bag over his shoulder; at least I think that's what he did, since I'm clashing against something that feels like his back.

Ami yells. Several flesh-hitting-flesh sounds ensue. Ami grunts. The gang is laughing. I can scarcely hear her say "Forgive me, Obaa-chan…"

A buzz fills the room. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Heck, all my hair is standing up! I watch the hair on my head lift to touch the confines of the bag. It's a low crackling sound, like static on the radio, emanating from where I last heard Ami speak.

"What the hell!" Rex whispers.

I hear Ami articulate in clearly defined tones over the hum, "Inazuma genkotsu."

Now how can I best describe this? You know that kind of sound that a bomb, or thunder say, makes? Imagine that, about five feet away from you while the tech manager plays hopscotch across the light controls and everybody else is screaming, cursing and running around like beheaded poultry. Now imagine that you are an object in a sack, such as a young girl. Do you think anybody's gonna care which end you land on when your would-be-kidnapper flings you through the air like last month's garbage?

Nope . . . .

Well, that's where we'd both be wrong, because somebody did catch me, but falling on the floor might have been better than acting as a conductor for kazillion volts of electricity.

_O kami, _I think as the electricity peters out and spots swim in my vision, _This is **really** going to hurt in the morning._ And, once again, I know no more.

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Woot! Okay… I'm proud. But I won't babble on this time. Just please review and tell me that I haven't lost my touch for writing. I'll try to update early next month.

Thanks!

Wow, Glossary's a doozy this time!

Glossary: 

Bijin—Babe

Daiouka—Are you all right?

Hiretsukan_—_Evil stupid thing

Ikazuchi—Thunder

Inazumagenkotsu_—_Lightning fist

Itai_—_Owch!

Kami_—_God

Ko musume_—_Girlie, little b!tch is probably closer in terms of offense

Kono Yogore_—_Piece of filth

Nigero—Run/Get away!

Oi_—_Hey

Shitsukoi—Persistent, relentless, tenacious-at the very least a constant pain in the butt.

Tasukete kure_—_ Help me/Save me!

Temee_—_really rude thing to call someone, usually translated as b#st#rd

_Elephants in Pink Tutus—_an actual book! (remember this)

Yamero_—_Stop it! Can also be translated as "Enough!"


	10. Abduction and Abdukrasomebody

Gomen to all! I'm going to be gone for almosta month, so the next chapter will take some time. Heck, I'm not even gonna be on the same landmass! (Australia, here I come baby!)

Yes! We'refinally into the double digits! I'm so proud!

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Chapter 10

**Abduction and Abdukra-somebody**

_Dead would be better,_ I think to myself, feeling stiff and sore in more places than I cared to notice. _What the… Oh, ew! That's disgusting! _

I scrub furiously at the pool of dried spit on my cheek. What am I? A fountain?

_Uh?_ My head meets resistance in what seems to be a pillowcase. _Wow, looks like the bed finally _did_ eat me._ I think, chuckling to myself mentally. I smile deliriously, _That's funny, I smell gasoline. I wonder if _he _was boozing with the mecha—_

_Ch-ch-ch…**VROOM! Skreeeeeeeek!**_

The thought goes unfinished as I skid back, slam into something, and something else with hard sides and pointy edges falls on top of me.

_Itai… _I think meekly. Loud swearing can be heard up ahead.

"Rex! Watch it man! I just got 'er fix from the last time you drove!"

"Sorry, boss, li'l excited is all."

An exasperated sound and several grumbles follow.

"He's going to get us caught, peeling out like that…"

"You're telling me, Bat… Lard! How you doin' back there?"

"Ahhhh… peachy!" This shout is closer.

"And the goods?"

"Ummmmmm, nice and snuggly!"

"Great!"

We're rumbling along steadily now. The buzz of vibrating objects is making my head pound. But where the heck am I?

_Gears turning, mind working, light bulb turning on._ I think with sudden shock, _I'm being kidnapped!_

I look around, for all the good it does me, trying to see through the grungy pillowcase.

_How the heck did this happen? _Last I remember is . . . is—it shouldn't be this hard to remember—oh! Waking up sometime late at night and… flying over the city! That can't be right, must have been a nightmare. But then how in the world did I get here?

_**Skreeeeeee!**_

I slide across what must be the bed of a pick-up truck as we turn hard, bashing into a wall or some kind of stolen good.

_Heh, nice and snuggly my spine._

Several stirrings or curses fly, most with the name Rex in them. Something else falls on my head and I almost pass out. Half heard words drift through my head. Grinding my teeth, I fight to hear them.

…_Shitty light blue truck headed northeast._

_What brand?_

_Don't know, couldn't care less._

_Dammit, Hiei! How 'm I supposed to recognize it?_

Hiei… that sounds vaguely familiar.

_Easily, it won't have any tires._

_What? Hiei, dame!_

There's an abrupt feeling of loosing the second speaker. The attention of the first—Hiei?—turns to me with a sort of dangerous amusement.

_Hold onto your life, ningen._

I have the smallest amount of time to wonder how he managed to make a smirk audible when the truck jolts, crashes down and skates across the pavement with a shower of sparks. The air goes blue with curses. Things fall on me and start piling up. Other cars honk and some people scream.

Rather impressive, really.

Suddenly, it all goes quiet. I hear feet running. The truck wobbles as someone jumps into it and starts rummaging through stuff.

_Help me! Help me!_ I think desperately, wriggling around as much as possible.

Things are shifted around. I can hear bags being tossed to someone else. I squirm harder.

"Shin? Shin?" the voice sounds similar to the one I heard prior. "Huh? Aha! There you are!" The remainders of the things are brushed aside as my pillowcase it picked up and light floods my world. I stare gratefully into the face of someone I'm pretty sure I recognize. Um, something like Urameshi, right?

"Oi, Shin! Sorry about that! _Someone"_ he aims a pointed glare at a red-eyed boy who has a printer under one arm and a computer the other shoulder. The boy gives a blank look back before, I swear, _vanishing_. "hadn't realized that when we said to 'watch over you' we meant 'protect and guard' too." Urameshi sighed. "But hey, all this junk is yours. These creeps robbed ya. (Don't think they meant to take you.) Hiei's taking it back to your apartment and Kurama and Kuwabara are putting it all back in place. Um, Shin?" I realized my attention had slipped. Who were these people? "Are taking any of this in?"

"I certainly hope so, because she doesn't remember any of it," a sadistic voice came from the boy leaning against the truck.

I jump, realizing that the entire bed had been emptied. Well, except for Lard. He's gripping the sides of the bed, his lips peeled back to show clenched teeth. Looking to the cab, I see the rest of the gang with their hands in front of their faces, mouths agape and eyes squinted shut. Not one of them move. Fascinating…

Dimly, I recognize the sounds of and argument going on behind me.

"What do you _mean_ you erased her memory!"

"The binding I did on her works best if she doesn't remember how I did it, fool."

"Oh yeah? So why doesn't she remember last night?"

"I took most of her personal memories of us as well."

"What the hell!"

Sounds of scuffling ensue.

"What importance is she to us, detective?" he spits the word like a curse. "So what if she's psychic? They're a dime a dozen! She just has a little more power than most!"

"We're on Koenma's orders!"

"More like he just wants another Shin in his army of slaves!"

Meanwhile I'm … uh, slightly distracted. After waving my hands in front of his face, I'd been experimenting with what else won't make this blob of fat so much as twitch. Grabbing Lard's eyelashes, I pull them out as far as they'll go before letting them snap back. Grinning so hard my cheeks hurt, I start picking up bits of grass and rocks, stuffing them into his nose and cheeks.

"I don't think he'll appreciate that," a velvet voice says from behind Lard.

I jump hard. Then become mystified in the drop-dead gorgeous boy beside me.

"Though I can see the allure in toying with someone who won't wake. You can thank Hiei for that. His version of a 'brain freeze' is what's keeping all these people immobile and the rest from noticing anything's out of the ordinary."

Only taking in the sound of his voice but not a single word, I feast my eyes on his other features. It's as if someone replaced his eyes with perfect, pure, twin emeralds. His hair could be silk spun from the petals of a red rose. His face is content and almost mischievous in the mid-day sun.

"Damn you, Hiei!"

The truck lurches with an impact from the side. I fly out, straight at the god from nowhere. He catches me easily, gently sets me on the ground and he strolls to the other side of the truck where Urameshi has Hiei in pinned against the side in a death-lock.

"Hey, Shin."

For the third time today (that I remember), I jump, this time knocking into Kuwabara. I know him from school.

"Sheesh. On edge much?" he asks.

_Well, I can't remember half of today, just was saved from a robbery/kidnapping and everybody's acting like the wheels being cut _off_ a car, people freezing and the rest of the world going on with their merry lives is normal. Hm. Don't see any reason why I should be._

And yet, all this thinking amounts to is a ticked look in the carrot-top's direction. Not two seconds later we were barreled into and I found myself in more contact with the sidewalk than is normal.

"Ach! I'm sorr-Aiyeee! Satu! I thought you were gone forever!" I'm swooped up and given a face-full of hair by my favorite curly blonde, along with a bear hug hard enough to squish the air from my lungs.

Kuwabara mutters from the sidewalk, something about crazy schoolgirls.

Ami finally set me down and kneels beside me, hugging me once more on my level. I give a couch to let her know that oxygen to the brain is good. She releases me, letting her hands drop to her sides.

"Oh, Satu! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…"

I catch sight of her arms. Palms and the inside of each arm are burned all the way up to her t-shirt line, and not the kind you get from hanging out in the sun for too long, either.

"Oh, that's just, uh, something stupid I did," she says, looking away and standing up. "Yo! Urameshi and friends!"

The trio that had been whispering harshly now glanced up at Ami.

"Thanks. Guess I owe you for saving Satu." She grinned, then turned on her heel. "Ja! C'mon Satu, I'll take you back to your place"**

* * *

**

(Kuwabara's House)

_**Thump.**_

Hiei was shoved against the wall. With a smoldering glare he grabbed his assailant by the shoulders…

_**BAM!**_

…and slammed him against the opposite wall.

"Hey!" Kuwabara hollered, pushing Yusuke away from the wall. "Damn it! Look at this hole! I'll have to get another carpenter in here! Shizuru will kill me!"

Hiei released his captive stiffly. Yusuke let out a cloud of curses and plopped down in the recently-de-trapped-recliner. The fire apparition took 'his' windowsill.

"Now that we're all _calm,_" Kurama emphasized, "Perhaps we can continue discussing the topic at hand."

"Why do we always have to have the meetings at my place?" Kuwabara moaned, still examining the dent in his wall.

"My pad looks like crap," Yusuke offered nonchalantly at the same time Kurama said, "My mother would faint." The two looked at each other wirily.

"Obviously we need a new meeting place, or better tempers," Kurama chuckled quietly, "The latter seems to be in short supply, so I'll see what I can find for the first. In the meantime, let's focus on Shin."

"Poor kid," Yusuke muttered. The group gave him a curious look. "When I picked up that bag, I could feel bruises on her. And there were parts of her skin that were a little discolored from old injuries."

"So you believe that Masa beats her?" Kurama intoned what they were all thinking.

"Well she'd have to be one heck of a clumsy kid otherwise," joked Kuwabara.

There was a snort from the windowsill.

"I know you think are humans…" Yusuke started accusingly.

"Before," Kurama said quickly, throwing glances at each fighter, "We get too off subject, let's solve the problem of Shin's memories and the bind."

"Her memories should be released," Yusuke growled, "Powers, too."

"I agree with you on her memories, Urameshi," Kuwabara said, trying to drag his attention away from Hiei. "But what happens when we suddenly have a physic, full-fledged with telepathy, telekinesis, and who knows what else on out hands?"

"She is none of our business…" Hiei said in a low tone, staring fierily out the window.

Kuwabara took a seat next to Kurama. He hoped to be well out of the way for this argument. If only he could get his poor house out of the way, too.

"Kuwabara is right," Kurama said, louder than necessary. "Shin's aptitude for the psychometric field is massive compared to most. If we were to release the bind, her abilities could be explosive and beyond anything we've seen. She'd be a danger not only to herself, but to the whole area inside range of her powers."

"Like what?" Yusuke eyed Kurama.

"Imagine that you'd like to go out to the beach," Kurama explained, "Just thinking it. If you aren't specific enough, some bad things could happen. On one hand, your molecules could rip apart and disperse themselves evenly to all the beaches within your range. And that's the better solution."

Yusuke gave him the 'do I have to ask' look, prompting the left hand, or the right hand, depending on which hand you started on.

Kurama sighed, "Or it might be that you _bring the ocean to you_. On an island country like Japan, that could bring tidal waves to the Shin's doorstep from every direction."

"In other words, undoing the bind is a big no-no," Kuwabara said before the mood could dampen again.

"Yes," said Kurama flicking his eyes gratefully in the carrot-top's direction.

"But what harm could it do to release her memories?" Yusuke said, flopping backwards to make the recliner go down.

"As long as we only revive the memories _we_ suppressed, I don't see any," Kurama admitted, careful not to point blame at anyone.

"So as for her memories, release or keep captive?" asked Yusuke.

"Release, " said Kuwabara and Kurama. Hiei gave an exasperated huff of compliance.

Yusuke put the next item up for vote, "And her abilities? Locked or free?"

"Locked" the others said in unison—some more forcefully than others.

With a little grin Yusuke leaned back so far that he was lying down.

"There's one other matter we should discuss," Kurama said reluctantly. "The Book used to test Shin's initial abilities has, for lack of better terms, disappeared."

Kuwabara's head jerked up. "Nani? You don't mean the one with all the incantations, potions and history of Spirit World in it, do you?"

"Yes, thank you, narrator," Kurama replied with a rare show of sarcastic in-tolerance.

Hiei gave Kurama a piercing look, "Where'd it go?"

"Spirit World intelligence doesn't know. On the surveillance camera it was there in the vault, and then it was gone. The alarm even went off, yet there were no traces of anyone having been there."

The others were looking at him strangely. Spirit World vault could be stolen from, as two in the room had already demonstrated, but not blindly. There was always some kind of clue.

"The odd thing," the former thief added, "Is that the air pressure in the vault was slightly less. Exactly the PSI it would have been without The Book."

**

* * *

**

_Elephant in Pink Tutus, _I think after tipping on it for the umpteenth time, _why won't you leave me alone?_ Restoring my closet to its former cluttered glory is going to be really hard if I can't do anything about this darn book!

_Okay you infuriating thing,_ I think, placing it in the middle of the stack I'd been working on, _Let's see if you can get out of here! _I quickly pile books on top of it, fitting them together like Lego's.

_Hah_, I think to it and begin the next stack. I pause and make a face. _I'm talking to books. Sheesh! I really must be bored._

There's still been no word from my other side. It'd been strangely lonely without her.

Suddenly I find myself on the floor with my thought-to-be-finished stack in ruin all around me. With a mental moan I take one book off my head.

_Elephants in Pink Tutus… again… what a surprise. I think I'm going to have a heart attack and DIE from not-surprise!_ I put it on the nightstand. _I'll read you later, okay? Okay._

I nod, turn, and promptly fall on my face. With pointy book covers jabbing my gut, I utter something between a hiss and a groan. Fishing out the book from between my feet, I flip it to the cover and guess what it is?

_Pachyderm ballerinas… _I set it on the nightstand again, carefully making sure it isn't overhanging in any way. _Staaaay. Stay! Goooood book, staaaay…._ I think, edging away from it.

Thankfully, this time it does stay and I stack all my books as high as I can reach (which, in truth, isn't very). So what if the book-towers are a tad hog-posh? It'll do for now.

I look back to my cot, my _beautiful_, _lovely, _**broken** cot. I can't believe it ripped straight down the middle. I can't be that heavy. The single blanket is stretched over it tightly like a cloth over a dead person.

_Must have been the grace of Kuwabara and that other beauty… I-I mean boy!_ I quickly change my thinking pattern to safer subject matter. _They really did such an awesome job with all the other furniture, and the beer and all the other junk Ami was real surprised that it was all back in place which would have been really hard to explain if I hadn't just shoved the door in her face but hey what are friends for it's not like she expected much more gee am I glad she left 'cause if she hadn't…_ I cut off the steady stream of dribble. _What the heck am I nervous about?_

Sighing, and pushing that bea-boy's(!) face to the back of my mind, I pull the sheet off the cot to assess the damage.

_Shinjirarenai… _I think in awe. The sheet catches on and knocks down one of the many book stacks to add dramatic background music.

My bed is fixed! It's gorgeous, perfect! Wonderful! Someone has sewn up my bed! The blue-green canvas is now accompanied with a swirling, twirling, spiraling red rose design that trails up the middle and around the edges. _It's gorgeous!_ I run my fingers over it, squealing mentally. _It's silk! _Carefully, I crawl onto my newly restored bed. _And strong!_

Lounging on my gorgeous bed, I wonder who could have worked such elegancy. Not Kuwabara, he's such an oaf. I softly close my eyes. It must have been Shuichi…

With a little shiver, I roll over and sit up against the wall. My 'reading position.' I reach out to the nightstand and find that the book has shifted to the very edge closest to my bed.

_Stupid book_, I mentally mutter, _could have sworn I'd left it in the center…._

I shift it into my lap. It's a thin hardback. I flip through. It has nothing but horridly drawn pictures of elephants. Elephants in the circus, elephants in a parade, elephants in the wild, and yes—elephants in a ballet.

I let is flop shut, staring at the title grimly.

_Thought I would, but I can't read you like this._

And like a chocoholic in front of a fudge store, book suddenly gains weight. The cover blinks from silly elephants to deep black. Gold letters emblaze _The Book _across the top and down the spine.

I stare at the pages; there are now, easily, over a thousand.

Awestruck, I warily flip the cover open. Taking the first page between my forefingers, I discover that the paper is very thin, soft and sharp

_Itai! Paper cut!_

Sticking the assaulted digit into my mouth, I turn the first page. Without my touching them, about five hundred follow in rapid succession, coming to a sudden halt on a page entitled _Releasing the Adiutor. _A short paragraph of description follows:

_Will release any binds upon the user within the user's power. For complete effects, speak aloud. (As with any spoken spell, articulate clearly with vivid mental imaging of desired result.)_

_WARNING: May leave user with temporary energy drainage and/or dizzy spells. Caution is advised in the first week after attempted spelling. **If not spoken clearly, unexpected results could occur.**_

I look up with sadistic irony in my eyes. _Speak aloud, huh? Sure, no sweat. Just allow me to rip out this innocent bystander's vocal chords and use them for a few moments. Nope, not a problem at all._ Then it dawns on me. **_Spell!_**

_Can't be true… but if isn't then what's the harm in trying? _I think gleefully.

"_K--- h---- hr---!" _

_Ugh, _I think, putting a hand to my throat, _Okay, so the "articulate" thing is definitely out. I'll have to settle for picturing it._

I look at the page once more. I read through the block of text as noticeably and loudly as I can. I put my full understanding into each word. It's difficult but mesmerizing… spellbinding…

"Oh, God!"

My body jerks in such a convulsion that The Book flies out of my hands, I fall off the bed crash into my nightstand, break my clock, and manage to knock down several book sky-scrapers as well.

(That was mildly surprising.)

"Oh my baaaack…" There's a succession of sickening pops. "_Never_ do that to me again."

Sitting up, gasping for air, and clearing the hair from my eyes, I look back at my bed. A wiry figure is perched on the edge, grimacing and craning his neck. His flaming orange hair reaches almost to his knees, but that's not saying much since he's barely five inches tall.

Oh yeah, and he's stark raving naked.

Staring with bug-eyes and a face that can't decide to be pale or flushed, I felt like I was going to be sick.

The tiny boy notices me watching. He stands akimbo and grins, showing off slanted yellow eyes and pointy teeth.

"What's wrong, sweetie? Never seen one like me?"

I quickly look away, busying myself with my hopelessly broken alarm clock.

_Who is that!_

The naked boy jumps down from my bed to look up at me from underneath. He squints already slanted eyes.

"What? You don't remember me? I'm insulted!" he says, mocking to have a heart attack and collapse.

_Okay, that's done it. _I wail mentally, _I'm crazy, insane, gone off the deep end, fell off my rocker, a little WEE-OOO in the head!_

"Toki!" the boy snapped, standing up suddenly. Then he's gone and my head jerks to follow him. He jumps into the air, gaining surprising height. My nightstand stand back up on its own and he lands on it nimbly. "You don't even recognize the sound of my voice!" His ginger hair stands up a little more than it should be able to. His yellow eyes blaze. "Watch this, _Shadow_!"

He looks away and there's a horrible, awful, ear-wrenching sound. The sound of my bed ripping straight down the middle. I gasp. My cot lifts off the floor and proceeds to tear its self to bits.

The little naked boy is glaring at me fiercely. His arms are crossed over his chest; his foot taps irritably. "See, Shadow! Do you see what I can do? Do you remember me _now_?"

I stare at the ruined cot that Shuichi had so lovingly repaired for me. Pieces of fabric drift to the floor. A clear, sarcastic, familiar, _Stupid…_ rings through my head.

I gaze in wide-eyed wonder (bridging on horror) at the naked figure. The tips of his eyeteeth hang out as he smiles.

_You're… you're **her!**_

He grimaces. "I thought even you would have noticed that my gender is _obviously_ not female."

_But you were in my head! You were PART OF ME! You have to be a-a-a_

He flashes more of his incisors at me. "Just because you inferred I had to be female doesn't make it true."

I sway, thinking, _There was a little man in my head… A little NAKED man! _

I'm feeling those dizzy spells.

He puts on a half-pout. "You don't enjoy this form? Pah! You're such a sissy." He climbs onto what's left of my cot. "You may call me Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha. I am the threshold guardian."

_My alter-ego is an evil little man-imp. _I think, still not over the fact, _A destructive little imp._

I feel yellow eyes zero-in. "Pixie might be closer…" he says, almost growling. "And I am not completely destructive. Mostly, but not completely. Watch…."

My eyes flick to the bed as he casts a hand towards it. The pieces gather themselves together, blink, and are suddenly whole. My bed is back! Perfect!

Sensing my mirth he repeats, "Watch," making the same gesture to my alarm clock. The little cogs, gears and numbers float over to the nightstand, blink, and my clock is just like new. The pixie gives me a wink and tips his head at the rest of my room. I turn just in time to see all my books fly through the air, reassembling themselves is a very convincing model of downtown Tokyo.

Feeling very much like a guppy (eyes wide and mouth gaping) I think, _Wow._

Abdukra-somebody's pride radiates across the room.

"Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha!" the pixie insists.

I suddenly feel very dizzy. Stumbling to my bed, I collapse and faint. The last thing I hear is an exasperated "Baka," from an amused pixie.

* * *

Wow! (pant-pant) I'm proud of myself. I wanted to get farther, but I'm running out of time. I leave tomorrow! And I have to be three hours early to the airport! XP Stupid customs. Then we fly to Denver, then LA. I have a SIX-HOUR LAYOVER IN LOS ANGLES! And they won't let me leave the airport! (I'm going with a US delegation group: People to People.) I'm going to be soooo bored! Think of me! Cause after sitting in LA for three hours, I have a 21 hour flight to Sidney! Gah! Then what do I do once I'm in Sidney, Australia for the very first time? (With tingling butt and legs from lack of movement) I climb the Sidney Harbor Bridge. T.T Hooray…

Well, it's a 21 day trip, crossing the IDL twice, so I'll get back to writing ASAP. Next time you'll find out where her father (Masa) went, what went down, and a little more about Abdukrahman Nitya-Sundara Paramartha.

Did anybody notice how her memory started coming back in bits and pieces? How about the way she started to sense feelings again? Or her usage of 'bed' over 'cot' after she'd seen what 'Shuichi' had done? Just wondering!

**Glossary:**

_what a surprise. I think I'm going to have a heart attack and DIE from not-surprise!—_Anybody recognize this? It's a quote from Iago in the Disney movie Aladdin. -

"More like he just wants another Shin in his army of slaves!"—This refers to Hiei's opinion of how Koenma's detectives are treated. It's also a refrence to when Masa and Sumi Shin used to work for Enma.

Aduitor- (Latin) helper, assistant, deputy

Akimbo- (English) To stand with your hands on your hips and feet spread apart.

IDL-- International Dateline

Itai-- Ow!

Dame—No! (As in, Don't do that!)

Ja—short for _Ja ne,_ see you later

Mecha—only later did I realize that when I'd cut off the word "mechanic" I told you guys that he'd been boozing with a giant robot. 0.o

Nani—What?

Oi—Hey!

Shinjirarenai—I don't believe it!


End file.
